THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


THE    CAMPING-OUT  SERIES. 

VOLUME  IV. 


LYNX-HUNTING: 


FROM  NOTES 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF  "  CAMPING  OUT. 


BY   C.    A.    STEPHENS. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PORTER    AND    COATES, 

8zz  CHESTNUT  STREET. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872, 

PV  TAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  co 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  \V  ashington. 


<?  5% 


TSTOTE. 


'TN  this  volume  are  recorded  the  incidents  of  a 
•*•  winter's  sport  in  the  backwoods  of  Maine. 

Although  but  amateur  naturalists,  the  young 
gentlemen  of  our  party  cherish  a  modest  hope  to 
have  herewith  contributed  somewhat  of  general 
information,  as  also  of  amusing  detail,  to  the  natu- 
ral history  of  the  State.  Reference  is  respectfully 
invited  to  the  "  Field-Notes  "  following  the  story 
proper.  —  ED. 


LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


THE  DOCTOR  WAS  DOWN 18 

A  FIRE  WAS  SOON  CRACKLING .28 

«' HELP,  HELP  !" 72 

OUT  LEAPED  THE  CAT  WITH  THE  TRAP 138 

ARMS,  LEGS,  AND  COAT-TAILS,  ALI.  WHIRLING 218 

LOUPCERVTER 253 

OTTER 271 

BEAVEK  •••• c.276 

I 


CONTENTS. 


FIRST  DAY. 

PAGE. 

A  Winter  Sunrise.— The  Spruce- Woods.  —  Our  Party.  — "The  Doc- 
tor."—"Grip."— A  Moose-Sled.  — Our  "Supplies."— " Rackets." 
—  The  Doctor  on  Rackets  for  the  First  Time.  —  The  "  Military  Road." 
— Winter  Scenery. — Rackets  on  a  Steep  Hillside.  —  A  Lynx-Trail.  — 
Deer  at  a  Distance.— A  Frozen  Lake.  — Camping.— An  Old  Pine- 
Fire.—  Pitch- Wood.— Our  First  Night  in  the  Woods  ...  11 


SECOND  DAY. 

A  Snowy  Forest.  — A  Hare.— The  Doctor  wakes  up  Cross,  and  ex- 
presses some  Radical  Opinions.  — A  Fresh  Lynx-Trail.  —  The  Chase 
and  Capture. — The  Skinning.  —  Some  Anecdotes  of  the  Lynx. — 
Tired  out  .  .  32 


THIRD  DAY. 

Colder.— The  Hound  in  Bad  Plight.  —  Shooting  Hares.  — Facts  about 
the  Northern  Hare.  — An  Incident.  —  Setting  the  Traps.  — The 
"Clog."— Glimpse  of  a  Lynx.  — A  Fox.— Winter  Fishing.  —  Cut- 
ting  the  Hole.  —  Angling  through  the  Ice.  — A  Big  Pickerel.— 
Wade's  Adventure.  —  A  Togue. — Raed  espies  an  Unknown  Animal .  47 


8  CONTENTS. 

FOURTH  DAY. 

PAGE. 

Fried  Pickerel.  — We  go  to  visit  the  Traps.  — A  Disappointing  State  of 
Things.  — A  Clew  to  the  Screechings.  —  Trap  gone.  — On  the  Trail. 
— A  Long  and  Imprudent  Chase.  — The  Game  turns  up  most  Unex- 
pectedly. —  A  Lively  Tussle.  —  Supperless.  —  A  Night  out.  —  A 
Cold  Time  of  it.  —  Grim  Hunger 68 

FIFTH  DAT. 

A  Question  of  Eating  or  Sleeping.  — Coffee  and  Hasty-Pudding.  —  A 
Snooze.  —  A  Start.  —  An  Unexpected  Visitor. — Mr.  Durkee  and  his 
very  Exciting  Tales  of  the  "  Lucivee "  .  .  ....  77 

SIXTH  DAT. 

Visiting  Traps.  —  Re-clogging.  —  Bait  gone.  —  A  Lynx  Hard  and  Fast. 

—  "Blessed  are  the  Merciful."  — How  to  kill  a  Cat  without  hurting 
it.  — Prof.  Tyndall's  Rifle-ball  Theory.— We  resolve  to  kill  our  Cats 
scientifically.  — A  Lucivee's  Foot  left  in  a  Trap.  —  Down  the  Lake 
on  an  Otter-Hunt.  —  Wash  projects  a  Novel  Method  of  Hunting  the 
Animal,  and  catches  a  Ducking.  — An  Anecdote  of  the  Otter    .       .      93 

SEVENTH  DAT  (SUNDAT). 

"No  Cat-Hunting  on  the  Lord's  Day."  —  A  Bible  wanted.  —  Some  Ap- 
propriate Advice  from  the  Doctor;  also  his  Opinion  of  Dickens  and 
Charles  Reade.  — "Foul  Play."  — A  Fisher  and  Hare.  —  Anecdote 
of  a  Fisher  and  Heron.  —  Another  Otter.  —The  Otter  and  the  Wood- 
chucks.  —  Some  Strange  Noises  from  the  Lake 112 

EIGHTH  DAT. 

Going  the  Round  of  the  Traps.  —  A  Lively  Scrimmage.  —  Not  a  Loup- 
cervier,  but  a  "Bay  Lynx."  — Story  of  a  Bay  Lynx.  — Our  Third 
Otter.  —Fishing  through  the  Ice  again.  —A  New  Excitement.  —  The 
Doctor's  Baby.  —  "Come,  Baby,  come  down:  we  won't  hurt  you." 

—  A  "Bad  Sell."— Anecdote  of  a  Fisher  and  a  Raccoon   ...    135 

NINTH  DAT. 

Borne  Melancholy  Cries  at  a  Distance.  —  More  Snow.— A  Brisk  Chase 
after  a  Drove  of  Lynxes.  — Two  More  shot.— A  Disco  very.  — Bea- 
ver.—Beaver-Houses  under  the  Snow.  — Raed's  Air-Castle.  —  The 
Doctor's  Enthusiasm.— A  Fisher.— Wonderful  Tenacity  of  Life.  — 
An  Anecdote  of  the  Fisher .180 


CONTENTS.  9 

TENTH  DAY. 

PAGE 

Betting  Traps  for  Beaver.  — "Busting"  a  Beaver-Hut.  — "Decidedly 
Hard-shelled."— Mining  the  Walls.  —  The  Inside.— The  Doctor 
comes  in  from  the  Swamp  Panic-stricken.  —  A  Strange  Recital.  — 
Trap  carried  off  by  a  Catamount.  —  Terrific  Shrieks.  — We  sally 
out.  —  Ugly  Fancies.  —  A  Scare.  —  A  Moment  of  Suspense.  —  A 
Revelation 184 

ELEVENTH  DAY. 

A  Regular  North-easter.  — Building  a  Fire  in  the  Storm.  — A  Young 
Lynx,  which  turns  out  to  be  a  Noisy  Pet 197 

TWELFTH  AND  THIRTEENTH  DAYS. 

Storm  continues.  —  "  Snow-hound."  — Reading.  — Bits  of  Advice  from 
the  Doctor.  —  Snow-Drifts.  —  Fishing  in  the  Storm  .  .  .  .200 

FOURTEENTH  DAY  (SUNDAY). 

Fourteen  Degrees  helow.  —  Too  Cold  to  sleep.  —  The  Hound  in  an  Ague 
Fit.  —  Scorching  and  Freezing.  —  A  Night  long  to  be  remembered. 
—  Seventeen  Degrees  below 204 

FIFTEENTH  DAY. 

Warmer.  —  Digging  out  the  Traps.  —  One  Beaver  caught,  but  frozen 
hard.  —  A  Lynx  shot.  —  Lynxes  and  Caribou.  —  Wade  caught  in  a 
Trap.  —  Thirteen  Degrees  above.  —  More  groaning  from  the  Lake  .  206 

SIXTEENTH  DAY. 

A  "Thaw."  — Another  Trap  gone.  — We  follow  the  Trail,  and  come 
up  with  the  Animal  in  a  Ravine.  —  A  Bear's  Den  under  a  Jam  of 
Drift- Logs.  —  The  Doctor's  Chloroform  Project.  —  Some  Chloro- 
formed Bears.  —  The  Doctor  in  a  "Fix."  —  We  try  smoking  them, 
and  set  the  Jam  afire.  — Two  captured.  —  Remarks  on  the  Black 
Bear  in  Maine.  — Story  of  a  Bear  with  a  White  Face.  — Old  Mr. 
Edwards's  Bear-Story 210 

SEVENTEENTH  DAY. 

Cold  again. —Yet  Another  Lynx,  and  a  Third  Trap  gone.  —  The  Hound 
at  Fault.— We  come  to  the  End  of  the  Trail.  — A  Long  Jump.— 
The  Doctor's  Opinion ;  also  Wash's.  —  The  Caswell  and  Parlin  Ad- 
venture. —  Old  Sabattus's  Panther-Story.  —  His  Squaw.  —  His  Dog  .  231 


10  CONTENTS. 

EIGHTEENTH  AND  LAST  DAY. 

PAGE. 

The  Last  Pie. — We  break  up  Camp. — Mr.  Lurvy  and  his  Horse-Sled. 
—We  apply  for  the  "Bounty"  on  Our  Bears.  — A  "Little  Scene." 
—Advice  to  Young  Sportsmen.  —  Amount  received  for  our  Furs.  — 
Camping  out  in  January 248 


FIELD-NOTES. 

THE  LOUPCERVIER  (Lynx  Canadensis) 253 

THE  FISHER  (Mustela  Canadensis) 264 

THE  OTTER  (Lutra  Canadensis)      ...       c       ...       c  271 

THE  BEAVER  IN  MAINE  (Castor  Canadensii)      ,       ....  376 


LYNX-HUNTING. 


FIKST    DAY. 

A  Winter  Sunrise.  —  The  Spruce-Woods.  —  Our  Party.  —  "  The 
Doctor."  —  "  Grip."  —  A  Moose-Sled.  —  Our  "  Supplies."  — 
"  Backets."  —  The  Doctor  on  Backets  for  the  First  Time.  —  The 
"  Military  Koad."  —  Winter  Scenery.  —  Backets  on  a  Steep  Hill- 
side.— A  Lynx-Trail.  —  Deer  at  a  Distance.  —  A  Frozen  Lake. 
—  Camping.  —  An  Old  Pine-Fire.  —  Pitch -Wood.  —  Our  First 
Night  in  the  Woods. 

IT  was  half-past  seven  o'clock,  the  morning  of  the  9th 
of  January,  1871.     We  were  a  "  merry  company ; " 
albeit  our  noses,  ears,  and  toes  were  a  little  frosty.     We 
had  just  been  set  down  at  the  end  of  the  road,  far  up 
in  Somerset  County  (Maine),  bag   and  baggage ;   and 
the  horse-sled  which  had  taken  us  up  from  the  "  settle- 
ment" five  miles  below  was  now  just  disappearing  among 
the  spruces,  twenty  rods  down  the  snowy  trail,  on   its 
return.     We  were  fairly  launched  on  the  wilderness. 
It  was  not  quite  sunrise :  but  the  whole  south-east  was 

11 


12  LYNX-HUNTING. 

ablaze  with  yellow  fire ;  and,  as  we  gazed,  a  single  thin 
streak  of  vivid  crimson  shot  up  half  way  to  the  zenith, 
and  heralded  the  coming  orb.  A  rosy  light  bathed  the 
white  earth,  and  smiled  back  to  the  crimson  clouds,  so 
cold,  and  yet  so  bright,  in  the  crisp  black  setting  of  the 
spruce-forest.  Here  and  there  a  Hudson-Bay  squirrel 
chickered  sharply,  and  stirred  the  evergreen-boughs. 
Now  and  then  a  sharp  crack  of  frozen  wood  echoed  off 
among  the  rough  trunks.  Wintry  little  chickadees 
were  hopping  busily  about,  getting  a  breakfast  of 
Heaven  knows  what,  but  finding  time  to  chatter  their 
tireless  monody. 

There  were  five  of  us ;  viz.,  Mr.  J.  W.  Kaedway  and 
Mr.  G.  W.  Burleigh  of  Boston,  Mr.  Wade  H.  Additon 
of  South  Carolina,  "Dr."  J.  A.  Coffron,  formerly  of 
Worcester,  Mass.,  besides  the  writer. 

The  reader  may  quite  possibly  claim  the  three  former 
young  gentlemen  as  old  acquaintances  under  the  abbre- 
viated names  of  Eaed,  Wash,  and  Wade,  respectively. 

But  Dr.  Coffron,  better  known  among  us  as  "the  Doc- 
tor "  simply,  was  a  more  recent  acquisition ;  though  very 
likely  not  now  professionally  unknown  to  the  readers 
of  daily  literature  in  that  department  thereof  which 
setteth  forth  the  curative  omnipotence  of  patent  'medi- 
cine: for  the  Doctor  has  (since  the  events  herein  re- 
corded) opened  a  "  lead  "  thereunto,  which  promises  well 
—  in  print  —  for  the  sanitary  welfare  of  the  globe.  In- 
deed, the  Doctor  boasts,  that,  although  he  may  not  as 
yet  have  actually  dethroned  the  king  of  terrors,  he  has 
still  fairly  wrested  Magna  Charta  from  him,  if  peo- 
ple will  only  accept  him  as  their  champion,  and  take 


LYNX-HUNTING,  13 

bis  "sirup."  Nothing  can  be  fairer  than  this  proviso, 
as  everybody  must  see.  I  have  myself  tasted  the  sirup. 
It  tastes  well.  There  is  no  knowing  what  it  might  do 
if  one  should  make  an  habitual  use  of  it  at  one  dollar 
per  bottle ;  and  it  seems  to  me  that  no  one  could  seri- 
ously doubt  that  longevity  would  be  cheaply  enough 
purchased  at  six  shillings  a  quart  in  currency. 

I  subjoin  an  extract  from  one  of  young  Raedway's 
letters,  received  a  few  days  before  setting  off  on  the  lynx- 
hunt  ;  and  meanwhile  add  a  "  glimpse  physique  "  taken 
from  a  full-length  photograph  of  our  embryo  j5Csculapius, 
which,  minus  "the  tall  hat,"  gives  a  very  good  idea  of 
the  "  style  "  in  which  he  first  dawned  upon  the  writer. 

Raed  says,  "  Perhaps  you've  heard  me  speak  of  Cof- 
fron,  the  young  t medic'  studying  over  at  Cambridge, 
and  prowling  round  the  hospitals  here.  We  call  him 
'  Doctor '  from  his  prospective  profession.  Queer  stick ; 
a  singular  combination  of  a  good  fellow  and  a  'cuss.' 
Has  all  a  young  M.  D.'s  usual  disrespect  for  his  own  car- 
cass and  those  of  other  folks.  Will  swallow  raw  oys- 
ters by  the  half-dozen  at  twelve,  P.M.,  and  go  to  bed  on 
them,  regardless;  and  at  the  same  time  denounce  all 
such  swallowings  as  '  blasphemies  against  nature,'  '  re- 
wards for  apoplexy,'  and  'baitings  for  the  nightmare.' 
But  he's  a  merry  wretch,  afternoons,  —  one  of  the  sort 
you  can  never  get  rid  of  when  once  you've  got  ac- 
quainted. 

"  Well,  he  got  wind  of  our  going  down  with  you,  and 
wanted  to  go  too,  as  a  matter  of  course,  you  see.  So 
we've  invited  him.  He'll  bore  us.  But,  then,  if  we 
should  happen  to  get  hurt, — -shot  accidentally,  —  or  be 


14  LYNX-HUNTING. 

sick,  any  of  us,  we  might  be  glad  of  his  services.  They 
say  he's  famous  as  a  cutter  and  slasher  in  the  '  dissect- 
ing-room.7 " 

I  say  there  were  five  of  us,  to  the  manifest  neglect 
of  the  sixth  of  our  party, — a  fine  large  brown-and-white 
bloodhound,  the  property  of  Mr.  Additon;  brought  by 
him  from  the  South.  We  had  thought  our  fox-hounds 
not  quite  "savage"  enough  for  the  lucivee. 

"  Grip  "  was  a  powerful  beast :  none  of  us  cared  to 
provoke  him  too  far.  His  weight  was  a  hundred  and 
twenty  odd  pounds ;  a  lineal  descent  of  the  "  negro 
hunters,"  —  the  old  Cuban  breed,  —  so  Additon  says. 
On  several  occasions  we  saw  him  close  boldly  with  the 
lynx  j  once  with  a  bear  :  but  the  deep  snows  prevented 
his  doing  us  the  service  he  otherwise  might. 

This  morning  the  snow  was  about  two  feet  and  a  half 
deep  on  a  level  in  the  woods ;  rather  light,  and  interlaid 
with  no  supporting  "crusts."  My  younger  comrades 
had  already  taken  their  degree  on  snow-shoes ;  but  I 
feared  for  the  Doctor.  To  walk  readily  and  easily  on 
rackets  requires  some  little  practice,  together  with  consid- 
erable natural  aptitude.  I  have  seen  fellows  who  found 
it  quite  impossible  to  get  the  "  hang  "  of  them.  We  felt 
a  little  anxious  in  the  Doctor's  behalf,  and  had  deemed: 
it  advisable  to  sound  him  somewhat.  Accordingly,  the 
evening  before,  Kaed  had  asked,  incidentally,  whether  he 
had  ever  been  on  rackets. 

"Well,  yes,"  replied  the  Doctor ;  "that  is,  I  used  to 
do  a  little  in  that  line :  but  —  out  of  practice,  you 
know.  Shall  have  no  difficulty,  I  think.  Very  simpld 
movement.  Don't  you  think  so  ?  " 


LYNX-HUNTING.  15 

"  Oh,  yes  ! "  said  E-aed.  "  It's  nothing,  after  you  get 
the  knack  of  it." 

"  So  I  always  said ! "  exclaimed  the  Doctor ;  "so  I 
always  said!  All  it  wants  is  a  little  adaptability. 
Does  seem  a  trifle  odd  when  you  first  mount  ?em,  I 
promise  you ;  but  you  soon  catch  the  movement." 

All  this  was  delivered  with  such  profound  sagacity, 
and  had,  moreover,  such  an  air  of  giving  us  instruction, 
that  we  hastily  changed  the  topic,  thankful  to  get  off  so 
easy  from  our  gratuitous,  not  to  say  scurvy,  suspicions. 

I  had  bought  of  an  Oldtown  Indian  a  moose-sled 
for  drawing  our  luggage  by  hand,  —  a  novel  sort  of  vehi- 
cle, deserving  a  brief  description.  To  allow  of  sledding 
amid  a  thick  growth,  it  was  made  very  narrow,  —  not 
over  fifteen  inches  in  width.  Its  length  was  about  seven 
feet.  The  shoes,  which  are  of  white-ash,  were  very 
thin,  but  fully  five  inches  broad,  to  prevent  its  cutting 
into  the  snow.  These  shoes  also  curve  over  in  front, 
and  are  bent  back  to  form  the  beams.  It  was  not  stiff, 
but  would  yaw  and  warp,  adapting  itself  to  the  trail.  In- 
deed, there  was  not  a  nail  nor  a  screw  about  it.  All  the 
fastenings  were  made  with  thongs  of  green  moose-hide. 
The  spaces  between  the  bars  were  bottomed  with  the  same 
material.  Attached  to  the  nose  was  a  long  line  (twenty 
feet)  with  two  rungs,  knotted  at  the  middle  and  end,  for 
dragging  it.  The  reason  for  so  long  a  drag-rope  was  to 
give  room  for  four  to  pull  on  snow-shoes ;  and,  when  a 
fellow  pulls  on  snow-shoes,  he  wants  plenty  of  sea-room 
for  his  heels. 

[Our  "supplies"  consisted  of  a  quarter  of  beef 
weighing  ssventy  odd  pounds,  a  firkin  of  pies  (mince 


16  LYNX-HUNTING. 

and  pumpkin),  a  bag  of  meal,  a  small  quantity  of  pork, 
together  with  butter,  sugar,  salt,  pepper,  &c.  Then 
there  were  a  spider  and  kettle,  knives  and  spoons ;  also 
an  axe,  our  two  guns,  seven  steel  traps,  our  blankets,  &c., 
—  in  all,  fully  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  This  load 
was  stowed  on  the  moose-sled,  and  lashed  and  relashed 
hard  and  fast.  In  addition,  each  of  us  had  his  knap- 
sack-bag and  strap,  containing  the  more  strictly  per- 
sonal property  of  each.] 

I  had  got  together  five  pairs  of  rackets  of  various  sizes, 
patterns,  and  styles  of  workmanship ;  though  I  had 
taken  care  not  to  get  any  of  the  memorable  basket-bot- 
tomed variety.  They  were  all  of  a  pretty  good  quality, 
having  well-seasoned  ashen  frames,  bottomed  with  green 
moose-hide  woven  tightly.  They  were  rather  narrower 
than  the  prevailing  pattern,^  in  proportion  to  the  length ; 
save  one  pair,  which  was  exceedingly  broad. 

Throwing  them  out  on  the  snow,  we  invited  the  Doc- 
tor to  take  his  choice,  —  out  of  courtesy,  of  course.  He 
threw  a  critical  glance  over  them,  also  a  rather  hyper- 
critical one  at  our  faces,  snapped  his  fingers,  and 
hummed  once  or  twice. 

"Well,"  quoth  he,  "I  shall  take  those  broad  ones,  on 
the  whole.  You  see,  I  am,  as  I  may  say,  rather  the 
soggiest  of  the  party.  Those  strike  me  as  being  the 
nearest  my  figure  ;  capacity  for  support  being  always  in 
proportion  to  the  supporting  surface,  considered  superfi- 
cially. The  broad  ones  for  me,  decidedly." 

Nobody  objected. 

Raed,  Wash,  and  Wade  drew  for  the  remaining  pairs, 
I  took  Hobson's  choice,  and  we  proceeded  "  to  mount." 


LYNX-HUNTING.  17 

As  the  Doctor  was  confessedly  out  of  practice, ..  we 
modestly  forbore  to  look  while  he  adjusted  his  straps. 
Venturing  to  steal  a  glance,  however,  I  discovered  that 
he  was  regarding  E-aed  (who  was  bent  over,  tying  his 
strings  near  him)  with  an  eye  attentive  to  the  details. 
The  process  is  by  no  means  intricate.  The  shrewd 
Doctor  at  once  caught  the  "general  principles"  of  it: 
then  it  would  have  done  any  one's  heart  good  to  see  the 
experienced  flourish  with  which  he  whipped  up  his  pant- 
legs  about  four  inches,  and  to  hear  the  little  grunt  of 
practical  resignation  with  which  he  bent  himself  to  the 
task. 

"  All  ready ! "  said  Kaed  presently,  taking  a  few  pre- 
liminary steps. 

"  All  right ! "  shouted  the  Doctor,  straightening  up, 
and  looking  hard  at  us,  but  standing  still  as  if  knee- 
deep  in  a  bog. 

We  four  younger  men  took  our  places  at  the  drag- 
rope,  and  started  ponderously  forward  with  the  sled. 
Tramp,  tramp,  tramp  !  The  crisp,  dry  snow  creaked 
like  wood  under  the  ashen  runners.  Grip  bounded  for- 
ward with  a  grand  bay  of  exultation ;  but  he  slumped  a 
good  deal. 

"  Come  on,  Doctor !  "  shouted  Wash. 

"Ay,  ay,  sir  I"  responded  our  medical  friend  patron- 
izingly. "But  isn't  this  a  lovely  morning  and  a  gor- 
geous scenery  ?  Ah  !  this  is  what  we  city  men  need  to 
give  us  tone  and  verve,  as  our  French  cousins  say.  Ex- 
hilarating !  —  prodigiously  so  ! " 

It  is  hardly  practicable  to  walk  on  rackets,  dragging  a 
eled,  and,  ^.t  the  same  time,  watch  events  taking  place 
2 


18  LYNX-HUNTING. 

behind  one :  besides,  we  had  no  desire  to  fluster  vif  such 
a  thing  were  possible)  the  Doctor  by  a  too  close  scrutiny 
of  his  maiden  steps.  We  heard  rather  than  saw  him 
start ;  and  a  certain  jerky  irregularity  of  the  sounds 
from  the  snow  told  us  he  was  coming  on.  I  had  an  idea 
that  something  rather  funny  was  happening.  Grip 
stopped,  and  looked  back  with  a  very  whimsical  expres- 
sion for  a  dog.  He  wrinkled  his  nose  casually.  Eaed 
looked  to  me,  and  raised  an  eyebrow.  But  we  moved  on, 
and  kept  our  eyes  about  our  business ;  that  is  to  say,  our 
feet.  Several  rods  were  gone  over.  Presently,  however, 
a  sort  of  prolonged  stumble  and  wallop,  followed  by  a 
very  naughty  adjuration,  sounded  from  the  rear,  and 
this  in  so  unmistakable  an  accent  of  desperation,  that 
we  all  turned  with  clumsy  caution. 

The  Doctor  was  down,  both  arms  stuck  in  the  light 
snow,  and  muttering  —  any  thing  but  his  prayers  ! 

Now,  it  is  no  joke  for  even  an  experienced  tramper  to 
fall  flat,  with  rackets  on,  in  a  deep  light  snow.  Some- 
times getting  up  is  a  work  of  half  an  hour.  The 
Doctor  was  wallowing  tremendously.  Roughly,  his 
flounderings  resembled  those  of  a  horse  trying  to  roll  up 
hill.  Wash  was  unfeeling  enough  to  shout  out  a  hearty 
laugh;  at  which  the  Doctor,  perceiving  that  he  was. 
discovered,  fought  the  snow  out  of  his  face,  and,  get- 
ting his  head  up  a  few  inches,  said  with  a  forced 
laugh,  — 

"Boys,  see  here  (pant):  I'm  (pant,  wheeze)  floored!" 

As  he  had  had  the  goodness  to  laugh  himself,  we  all 
took  the  liberty  to  do  so  while  striding  back  to  his  as- 
sistance. We  got  hold  of  his  snowy  arms,  and  tugged 


^YNX-HUNTING.  19 

at  him.  He  started  hard ;  yet  we  raised  him :  but  he 
couldn't  stand. 

"  They  seein  —  to  have  their  —  their  tails  crossed  !  " 
he  puffed,  making  an  unavailing  struggle  to  step,  and 
thereby  nearly  upsetting  the  whole  of  us. 

Sure  enough,  come  to  scuff  away  the  snow,  he  had 
the  long  hind-points  of  his  snow-shoes  interlocked,  much 
after  the  fashion  of  the  sign  of  the  constellation  Pisces 
Holding  him  up,  we  managed  to  get  them  apart. 

Meanwhile  the  Doctor  seemed  to  think  that  some  ex- 
planation of  so  singular  an  accident  was  required  of 
him. 

"  A  twig  of  this  shrub,  this  Manzanaris  occidentalis  " 
(I  hope  the  reader  will  be  able  to  identify  this  shrub), 
" caught  in  the  wicker-work,"  he  observed.  "  Tripped  me. 
Served  me  right.  Ought  to  have  had  my  eyes  on  the 
footing,  instead  of  among  the  evergreens.  But  such  a 
glorious  landscape  !  Boys,  I  sometimes  wish  I  had  been 
a  painter  instead  of  a  saw-bones.  A  morning  scene  like 
this,  for  instance  !  —  ah  !  to  depict  it  would  be  a  balm  for 
the  soul,  a  whiff  of  bliss,  an  antidote  for  sin,  a  sooth- 
ing preparation  for  paradise  !  Off  to  the  north-east, 
there,  now!  those  peaks  —  how  they  seem  to  swell  up  to 
the  skies ! 

" '  Oh  !  there's  grandeur  where  the  dark  mountains 

Up  to  dark  skies  gloomily  swell,  — 
The  home  of  perennial  fountains, 
Where  retreating  snows  may  dwell.'  " 

The  Doctor  .sighed  resignedly ;  then,  with  an  off-hand 
gesture,  recited,  — 


20  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"But  Happiness  flits  in  the  future, 

Like  the  Calmuck's  swift-riding  bride, 

When,  perverse  to  his  efforts  to  catch  her, 

She  leads  him  a  long,  loveless  ride.'  " 

This  was  given  with  such  a  burst  of  feeling,  that  we 
were  all  quite  carried  away  with  him.  Even  Grip 
bayed- sympathetically.  And  it  was  not  till  some  time 
afterwards  that  it  occurred  to  me  how  completely  our  at- 
tention had  been  distracted  from  the  rather  awkward 
little  episode  which  had  brought  us  to  his  rescue.  In- 
deed, it  is  highly  improbable  that  our  thoughts  would 
ever  have  reverted  to  it,  had  not  another  almost  exactly 
similar  tumble  associated  it  with  the  former  mishap,  ere 
we  had  gone  another  hundred  yards.  Wash  and  Raed 
went  back  to  help  him  up. 

"Hang  it!"  exclaimed  the  Doctor,  his  hair  full  of 
snow.  "  If  that  doesn't  make  twice !  Confound  that 
manzanaris-bush !  Thou  insidious,  grovelling  'snake 
in  the  grass '  —  or  rather  snow  !  Thou  enemy  to  the 
foot  of  man ! " 

As  he  came  waddling  along,  I  noticed  that  his  rack- 
ets "kicked  up"  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  his  back  con- 
stantly snowed.  He  had  actually  looped  the  strap  into 
the  skin-bottom  behind  his  heel,  by  way  of  making  his 
foot  fast ;  so  that,  instead  of  dragging  when  he  stepped, 
the  racket  rose  bodily  with  his  foot.  I  called  his  atten- 
tion to  this  fact,  remarking  that  his  strap  had  got  acci- 
dentally caught  in  the  hind-part  of  the  shoe,  and 
volunteered  to  set  it  right.  ; 

"  Thank  you,  thank  you ! "  he  cried,  shaking  his  wet 


LYNX-HUNTING.  21 

hands.  "If  you  would  be  so  kind!  My  fingers  are  a 
little  numb."  And,  while  I  was  down  beside  him,  he 
kept  patting  me  good-humoredly  on  the  shoulder,  with 
"Now,  Christopher,  you're  the  sort  of  comrade  I  like  to 
travel  with.  Should  love  to  make  the  grand  tour  de 
monde  with  one  trusty  companion  like  you." 

"Surely,"  thinks  I  to  myself,  when  I  at  last  got  clear 
of  those  fondling  pats,  "  if  ever  it  was  given  a  man  to 
slide  through  the  world  successfully  by  the  prodigal  use 
of  such  lubricants  as  the  colloquial  oil  (or,  rather, 
skunk's  grease)  of  flattery  and  wheedledum,  the  Doctor's 
the  man." 

But  then  the  Doctor  has  teeth,  and  can  show  them 
savagely  on  occasion. 

I  could  but  pity  him  this  time,  though.  He  was 
making  a  martyr  of  himself.  The  rackets  badgered 
him  half  to  death:  but,  for  more  than  half  an  hour,  he 
lumbered  on ;  then,  with  our  united  advice,  took  them 
off,  and  waded  in  the  trail  behind  the  sled.  Here  he 
went  in  to  his  knees  at  about  every  step,  but  declared 
it  was  a  "relief;"  and  no  doubt  it  was. 

For  a  mile,  our  route  led  amid  low  hemlock-clumps 
interspersed  with  spruce  and  fir.  We  wound  our  way 
among  these.  The  snow  let  our  rackets  in  from  two  to 
three  inches ;  and  it  was  not  a  little  inclined  to  load  them, 
—  a  circumstance  which  augmented  the  labor  of  walk- 
ing considerably.  The  tract  we  were  crossing  had 
been  mostly  cleared  of  its  timber  by  lumbering-parties 
several  winters  before.  In  the  course  of  an  hour,  how- 
ever, we  entered  the  primitive  forest ;  but,  ere  long, 
emerged  into  an  old  "  road "  cut  out  years  ago  by  the 


22  LYNX-HUNTING. 

General  Government  on  occasion  of  a  threatened  vvai 
with  Great  Britain.  This  military  roadway  connects 
with  another  which  was  opened  to  the  Canadian  fron- 
tier. Fortunately  it  was  never  called  into  requisition  in 
the  manner  contemplated.  It  is  now  rather  bushy, 
though  still  presenting  a  broad  trail  leading  off  north- 
north-west.  Along  this  relic  of  threatened  invasion  we 
drew  our  moose-sled  in  peace,  our  march  boding  no  evil 
to  any  thing  save  the  genus  Fells. 

The  sun  shone  brightly  in.  The  thick  spruce  broke 
the  cold  breeze.  It  was  frosty;  but  the  exercise  made 
us  very  comfortable.  The  white  prismatic  snows,  the 
black,  crisp  boughs,  the  red  cheeks  and  sparkling  eyes 
of  my  comrades,  and  the  sharp,  bracing  air,  were  all  ex- 
hilarating, inspiring.  Grip  was  tearing  about  with 
occasional  yelps,  echoed  sharply  from  the  frozen  wood. 
Here  and  there  a  partridge  whirred  off  at  our  approach. 
We  were  bathed  in  this  wintery  scenery  of  Nature's  own 
portraying.  We  felt  free,  —  free  as  air,  and  accountable 
to  nobody  save  our  own  consciences.  Life  looked  bright 
as  a  cliromo.  Our  spirits  were  light ;  our  thoughts 
ran  blithely.  We  laughed,  we  joked,  we  sang  and 
hallooed,  in  all  the  vigor  of  full,  healthy,  physical  action. 
Ah !  that  would  have  been  the  time  to  meet  one's  worst 
enemy,  and  forgive  him  ;  and,  if  he  wouldn't  be  for- 
given, laugh  at  him,  and  bid  him  joy  of  his  hatred. 

Is  it  not  a  fact  worth  thinking  of,  that  one  cannot 
hate,  and  plan  revenge,  when  thus  joyously  inspired  of 
Nature?  I  set  that  fact  against  all  the  miserable  spite 
and  malice  in  the  world,  as  its  antidote.  Creep  out  of 
your  den,  0  n. 'santhrope !  and  let  the  bright  sun  of 


LYNX-HUNTING.  23 

fclie  wild  woods  shine  on  your  unhappy  head;  let  the 
sharp  Christmas  air  ventilate  your  unhealthy  plottings ; 
let  the  forest  and  the  mountains  behold  you. 

But  we  grew  silent  ere  long.  Better  thoughts  suc- 
ceeded mirthful  outbursts.  The  woods  always  have  this 
effect.  Your  true  woodsman  is  invariably  taciturn :  at 
least,  that  is  the  adjective  we  give  him.  But  it  is  not 
like  the  taciturnity  of  the  town :  it  is  a  grave  reserve, 
which  might  be  mistaken  for  moroseness.  Reader,  are 
you  afflicted  with  some  chatterbox  of  a  friend?  A 
month  in  the  forest  will  cure  him.  Magpies  and  rooks 
don't  nest  in  the  wilderness. 

After  about  five  miles  of  the  "military  road,"  we 
came  to  a  point  where  it  bent  off  at  an  angle  of  about 
seventy  degrees  to  the  north-east,  seemingly  to  avoid  a 
steep,  wooded  ridge.  We  had  in  mind  to  cross  this 
ridge,  and  enter  the  township  to  the  north-west:  so  we 
left  the  road,  and  entered  the  unbroken  forest.  Sledding 
was  here  more  intricate.  We  had  to  corkscrew  our  way 
among  the  trunks  and  bushy  clumps.  For  a  couple  of 
hours  we  toiled  up  the  mountain-side  through  a  thick 
growth  (spruce  mainly).  The  tree-trunks  assisted  us : 
indeed,  in  some  places,  we  could  hardly  have  got  up 
but  for  these  helps.  A  snow-shoe  is  not  a  very  happy 
sandal  for  a  steep  hillside.  Wash  lost  his  footing  once, 
and  tumbled  down  in  a  miscellaneous  fashion  for  nearly 
twenty  yards,  when  he  brought  up  in  a  scrub-fir : 
but  the  Doctor,  who  was  wallowing  behind,  helped  him 
up,  and  "brushed  his  back;  "  and,  after  some  snapping 
of  his  wet  fingers,  he  took  to  the  trail  again,  and  came 
up  bravely.  It  was  a  gallant  sight  to  see  friend  Baed- 


24  LYNX-HUNTING. 

way  climb,  he  did  it  so  deliberately,  and  with  such  far- 
seeing  calculation ! 

Working  our  way  up,  and  raising  the  sled  by  sheer 
honest  lifting  at  the  line,  we  reached  the  summit  of  the 
ridge  at  a  few  minutes  after  twelve,  al-1  hungry  as 
Turks.  The  crest  was  probably  ledgy  under  the  bright 
icy  snow-crust.  Only  a  few  shrubby  evergreens  grew 
along  the  summit ;  and  the  eye  ranged  all  over  a  fine 
view  to  the  north  and  north-west.  A  thin,  hazy  film, 
creeping  slowly  up  out  of  the  south-west,  quenched  the 
zeal  of  the  sunshine,  which  had,  but  for  this,  been  quite 
dazzling;  for  a  broad  lake  reflected  it  from  a  shining 
crust.  It  was  a  fine,  bold  expanse,  stretching  off  for 
eight  or  nine  miles,  set  with  a  few  dark-wooded  islands, 
winding  among  branch-brown  headlands,  and  bounded 
far  away  by  a  black  woods-line.  It  came  back  almost 
under  us,  not  more  than  a  mile  from  where  we  stood, 
and  extended  off  to  the  east  for  a  couple  of  miles  farther. 

Here  we  lunched  on  cold  mince-pie.  Nobody  chose 
cold  pumpkin-pie ;  and  I'm  sure  I  don't  see  why  any- 
body should,  unless  the  alternative  were  squash. 

11  Shall  have  to  chew  snow  for  drink,"  Wash  re- 
marked, "  unless  the  Doctor  wrings  his  pant-legs." 

"But  won't  snow  make  our  mouths  swell  up  ?  "  Wade 
asked. 

"  Not  when  the  sun  is  as  warm  as  it  is  to-day/'  said 
Raed.  "  Up  north,  with  the  mercury  down  to  thirty 
degrees  below  zero,  they  say  snow  will  Moody  a  man's 
mouth  ;  but  it  won't  here  to-day." 

We  ate  snow  sparingly,  and  felt  no  inconvenience 
from  it. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  25 

My  eyes  wandered  away  to  the  snow-clad  lake,  asleep 
beneath  its  shield.  Its  broad  white  reaches  had  a  cer- 
tain grand  seeming,  its  perfect  level  contrasting  well 
with  the  hilly  country  about  it.  All  along  the  north- 
western horizon  a  succession  of  wild,  dark  peaks  showed 
against  a  pearly  sky,  the  opalescence  of  which  fore- 
shadowed another  snow-storm.  There  was  that  dead 
silence,  and  want  of  motion,  in  the  landscape,  which 
always  marks  the  winter-scene  in  high  latitudes.  As  I 
looked,  my  eye  on  a  sudden  detected  three  dark  objects 
near  one  of  the  islands,  moving  slowly  along.  The 
pocket-glass  showed  them  to  be  deer,  —  caribou,  we 
presumed.  They  were  about  three  miles  distant. 

A  cold  sensation  along  our  backs  warned  us  that  our 
clothing,  moist  from  our  morning  travel,  was  cooling. 
It  was  time  to  start  on. 

We  crossed  the  crest  of  the  ridge,  and  began  to  de- 
scend. It  was  steeper,  if  any  thing,  on  the  northern 
side  than  on  the  other.  To  prevent  the  sled  from  run- 
ning on  of  its  own  weight,  a  second  line  was  attached 
behind,  and  put  in  the  hands  of  Wade  and  the  Doctor. 
A  great  deal  of  caution  was  necessary  for  our  own 
safety  as  well  as  that  of  the  sled.  We  were  an  hour 
getting  down  to  the  pond-shore.  The  caribou  had  dis- 
appeared from  the  lake.  Possibly  they  had  heard  our 
loud  talk  while  teaming  the  sled  down  the  slope. 

Among  the  black  alders  which  skirted  the  shore  we 
crossed  a  fresh  lynx-track,  looking  as  if  made  not  ten 
minutes  previously.  The  creature  had  passed  at  a  run, 
leaping  eight  and  ten  feet  at  a  jump.  Grip  yelped 
sharply,  snuffing  the  strong  scent,  and,  but  for  Wade'a 


26  LYNX-HUNTING. 

peremptory  recall,  would  have  taken  it  at  once.  The 
trail  was  a  very  marked  one,  owing  to  the  depth  and 
softness  of  the  snow.  It  looked  as  if  a  horse  had  torn 
along  at  a  gallop.  The  boys  eyed  it  in  silence,  with 
covert  glances  around.  Even  the  Doctor,  coming  up, 
regarded  the  long  plunge  with  much  of  the  habitual 
self-complacency  discharged  from  his  countenance.  A 
tardy  suspicion  seemed  to  occur  to  him,  that  the  beast 
which  made  that  track  might  be  an  ugly  customer  to 
hunt.  But  he  said  nothing.  Men  like  the  Doctor  do 
not  generally  ventilate  their  private  opinions :  they 
keep  those  to  themselves. 

Keeping  due  north-west,  we  crossed  the  upper  arm  of 
the  lake  (the  width  of  which  E-aed  estimated  at  two 
thousand  meters),  and  made  the  northern  shore  at  a 
point  where  some  half  a  dozen  lofty  pine-stubs  towered 
from  a  sort  of  bluff  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the 
water-level,  back  a  few  rods  from  the  alder-fringe.  Be- 
neath the  high,  weathered  stubs  grew  a  profusion  of  low 
evergreen,  with  here  and  there  a  shaggy  black  spruce. 
Going  up  from  the  ice,  we  came  upon  another  lynx-trail, 
looking  as  if  two  or  three  had  passed  in  company. 

The  short  winter  afternoon  was  waning.  We  had 
come,  since  dismissing  our  team,  about  twelve  miles,  we 
supposed.  The  presence  of  the  loupcervier  was  here 
demonstrated  by  the  tracks ;  and  we  decided  to  camp 
among  the  evergreens  on  the  bluff,  for  a  few  days  at 
least.  The  stubs  offered  an  abundance  of  dry  wood. 
A  site  was  accordingly  agreed  upon,  and  we  set  to  work. 
The  first  thing  necessary  was  to  tread  and  beat  down 
the  snow.  This  task  was  delegated  to  Wade  and  the 


LYNX-HUNTING.  27 

])octor.  Four  crotched  stakes  were  cut,  and  the  sharp- 
ened points  stuck  down  into  the  snow  for  the  corner- 
posts  of  our  camp.  We  made  it  about  ten  by  twelve  on 
the  ground.  Poles  were  laid  in  the  crotches,  and  other 
poles  and  branches  laid  on.  Evergreen  was  then  cut 
down  by  the  quantity.  The  roof  was  thatched  with 
boughs.  As  no  rain  was  to  be  expected  at  this  latitude 
during  this  season,  our  only  care  was  to  get  it  snow- 
tight.  Evergreen-shrubs  were  piled  up  on  the  north 
on  both  ends,  and  upon  about  half  the  south  side.  The 
part  directly  fronting  one  of  the  stubs  —  the  place 
where  we  built  our  fire  —  we  left  open.  The  snow 
inside  the  camp  was  then  spread  over  with  boughs  to 
the  depth  of  a  couple  of  feet,  and  an  additional  quantity 
thrown  in  for  bedding.  We  took  care,  too,  not  to  leave 
our  camp  exposed  by  felling  the  adjacent  shrubbery. 

We  were  not  over  an  hour  getting  arranged;  which, 
considering  the  amount  of  work  done,  was  an  expedi- 
tious job.  But  my  three  younger  comrades  had  camped 
out  before,  and  "  knew  the  ropes."  The  Doctor,  too,  bore 
a  hand  very  effectively,  —  for  a  green  one,  —  working  with 
a  will,  and  asking  no  questions.  The  tramp  had  somewhat 
soupled  his  overarching  spirits ;  and  he  was  doubtless 
hungry  enough  not  to  delay  supper  by  questioning  the 
preliminaries. 

The  next  thing  was  to  fell  one  of  the  stubs,  and  split 
np  firewood  for  the  night.  Ten  minutes'  smart  chop- 
ping sufficiently  weakened  it  at  the  butt.  It  fell  over 
with  a  harsh,  roaring  crack,  and  plunged  into  the  snow, 
throwing  up  a  long  line  of  spray.  The  fall  resounded 
across  the  snowy  lake,  and  echoed  from  far  into  the  dark- 


28  LYNX-HUNTING. 

ening  woods.  Matches  were  got  out,  and  a  fire  was 
soon  crackling.  The  dry  pine  burned  fiercely,  and  was 
liberally  supplied.  I  have  no  doubt  we  burned  each 
day  a  thousand  feet,  —  board-measure,  —  worth  forty 
dollars  in  Boston ;  for  the  stubs  were  grand,  clear  old 
trunks,  which  defied  rot  and  the  weather,  though  stand- 
ing there  bare  and  dead  for  nobody  knows  how  long. 
Down  near  the  ground  they  were  "  fat "  with  pitch,  and  of 
the  color  of  old  port  held  against  the  sun.  That  a  pile 
of  this  pitch  wood  as  big  as  a  haycock  made  a  "  torcher  " 
of  a  fire,  I  have  no  need  to  assure  the  reader. 

As  soon  as  coals  had  formed,  and  could  be  raked  out,  a 
spider  full  of  the  steak  was  set  a-frying,  and  the  coffee-pot 
charged,  and  put  down  to  boil.  Kaed  then  set  himself 
to  make  a  "  hasty-pudding  "  in  the  kettle.  For  this  pur- 
pose a  second  smaller  fire  was  kindled,  and  a  lug-pole 
laid  upon  two  crotched  stakes  stuck  into  the  snow  on 
both  sides  of  it.  This  evening  he  procured  water  by 
melting  snow.  Former  experience  had  taught  him  the 
"  formula  "  for  this  sort  of  pudding.  Under  his  hands 
it  proved  a  success,  save  a  few  "  blubs." 

Here  I  may  be  permitted  to  remark,  that  to  make  a 
hasty-pudding  without  blubs,  is,  to  my  mind,  a  problem 
ranking  next  to  the  "  squaring  of  the  circle."  I  have 
yet  to  see  the  boy  or  the  man  who  can  do  it.  The  art 
seems  to  be,  at  present,  confined  to  a  few  dear  old  ladies 
born  late  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Their  grand- 
motherly hands  (God  bless  'em !)  do  somehow  have  the 
knack  of  filtering  in  the  meal  so  suently,  that  one  may 
partake  with  no  fear  of  "  stickers."  But  the  art  will 
die  with  them, 


LYNX-HUNTING.  29 

Meanwhile  Wash  and  Wade  were  filling  the  little 
kerosene-lamp  we  had  brought  along,  and,  by  means  of 
a  birch-with,  suspending  it  from  the  roof  of  the  camp. 
It  was  lighted ;  and  I  espied  the  Doctor  solicitously 
examining,  by  the  aid  of  a  small  hand-glass  from  his 
travelling-bag,  a  scratch  he  had  received  in  his  cheek. 
But  the  glare  from  the  fire  outside  the  doorway  quite 
eclipsed  the  lamp,  and  lighted  up  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood. I  feared  for  the  effect  on  the  game ;  but  it  was  too 
late  to  remedy  it,  farther  than  by  piling  evergreen  around. 

Supper  was  called.  We  had  steak  from  the  spider, 
fried  potatoes,  hasty-pudding  with  sugar  and  butter, 
coffee,  mince-pie,  and  pumpkin-pie.  No  cheese.  We 
ate  sitting  cross-legged  on  the  boughs  in  the  doorway 
of  our  camp,  fanned  by  hot  blasts  from  the  fire.  The 
whole  atmosphere  was  redolent  with  strong  odors  of  siz- 
zling pitch.  The  dull  twilight  had  faded  in  the  leaden 
darkness  of  an  overcast  sky.  The  great  white  lake 
stretched  away  dim  and  still  and  cold.  It  was  lighter 
than  the  sky ;  for  the  dark  snow-bank  in  the  south-west 
had  moved  up,  and  shut  out  the  starlight.  All  was  still 
save  an  occasional  sigh  of  the  storm-foreboding  wind, 
which  now  and  then  crept  in  from  the  lake  among  the 
spruces. 

Our  mighty  fire  roared  and  surged  and  crackled. 
The  "fire-fiend"  of  our  newspaper  reporters  seemed  to 
exult  in  these  stores  of  rich  old  fuel.  We  watched  it, 
thinking  of  the  enormous  force  with  which  the  atoms  of 
carbon  and  oxygen  were  combining,  —  a  force  sufficient 
when  utilized,  to  overturn  mountains,  —  raging,  and  run- 
ning waste  before  our  eyes. 


30  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Raed  brought  out  a  small  thermometer,  and  m-riod  it 
to  the  back-side  of  the  camp,  where  it  was  hung  up  in  a 
low  fir.  At  bedtime  it  there  indicated  17°  above  zero. 
Our  big  fire,  doubtless,  had  its  influence  on  this  reading. 
The  Doctor  was  apparently  much  interested  in  the  ther- 
mometer. He  went  out  to  see  how  it  stood  several  times 
that  evening.  This  seemed  to  amuse  Raed  and  Wash 
very  much.  But  I  did  not  quite  take  the  joke  till  the 
next  day ;  when,  happening  quite  accidentally  to  stum- 
ble against  him,  I  detected  a  faint  swash  inside  his  over- 
coat, suggestive  of  a  "  leetal  trop  of  prandee."  An  idea 
broke  upon  me;  but  nothing  was  said:  only  "going 
round  to  see  how  the  glass  stands  "  acquired  a  new  and 
rather  equivocal  significance  ever  after  that. 

The  guns  were  loaded,  and  set  handy  ;  Grip  was  tied 
in  one  corner  of  the  camp :  we  then  arranged  our 
blankets,  coats,  and  mufflers,  and  lay  down  on  the 
boughs,  with  the  understanding,  that,  whenever  any  of 
us  waked,  he  was  to  get  up  and  fix  the  fire. 

A  little  smoke  drifted  in  at  the  door, — not  much ;  but 
the  odor  was  very  pronounced  and  soporific :  we  all  sank 
asleep  under  it.  We  were  tired  out  with  our  tramp,  and 
slept  well,  judging  from  my  own  experience.  I  waked  but 
once :  it  was  then  a  few  minutes  past  two.  My  com- 
rades were  all  snoring.  Grip  alone  looked  up.  I  went 
out.  It  was  snowing  thickly,  with  wintry  little  gusts 
which  beat  in  at  the  doorway.  But  the  fire  was  still 
burning  ruddily,  despite  the  sifting  flakes.  I  piled  on 
half  a  dozen  of  the  great  yellow-bright  quarter-logs,  and 
poked  up  the  hissing  brands.  There  was  a  huge  bed  of 
coals,  which  gave  off  heat  by  the  kilogram.  Inside  the 


LYNX-HUNTING.  31 

camp,  the  temperature  was  not  uncomfortably  low.  I 
didn't  go  round  to  see  how  the  glass  stood.  The  Doctor 
said  he  was  up  three  times,  and  that  he  heard  at  twenty 
minutes  past  one  a  terrific  screeching  and  caterwauling 
off  in  the  woods. 


SECOND  DAY 

A  Snowy  Forest.  —  A  Hare.  —  The  Doctor  wakes  up  Cross,  and 
expresses  some  Radical  Opinions.  — A  Fresh  Lynx-Trail.  —  The 
Chase  and  Capture.  —  The  Skinning.  —  Some  Anecdotes  of  the 
Lynx.  —  Tired  out. 

ASTIR  at  seven.  It  had  stopped  snowing,  and  the 
clouds  were  broken  in  places.  There  had  come 
about  three  inches.  The  evergreens  were  laden  with  it. 
Every  thing  had  a  wintry  look.  Here  and  there  a 
loaded  bough  threw  off  its  burden  with  a  sudden  flop 
and  a  soft  thud. 

A  hare  had  passed  within  a  few  yards  of  the  fire  ;  and, 
not  a  hundred  feet  away,  I  espied  another  sitting  up 
under  a  low  spruce,  white  as  the  snow  itself,  and  blink- 
ing at  us  softly  with  its  large  dark  eyes.  Just  then  a 
fox  barked  with  a  long-drawn  yar-r-r-r-r,  at  no  great 
distance.  Master  "  Fatty  "  instantly  ducked  his  head. 

The  fire  had  got  low.  It  was  rather  cold.  E,aed  came 
out  with  his  teeth  chattering.  We  hastened  to  pile  on 
wood. 

Presently  we  heard  the  Doctor  rousing  up.  He  was 
in  a  rather  unhappy  frame  of  mind  this  morning. 
Whether  he  had  over-exerted  himself  the  previous  day, 

32 


LYNX-HUNTING.  33 

or  a  too-constant  anxiety  about  the  thermometer  had 
worn  upon  his  mind,  I  shall  not  take  it  upon  myself 
to  give  an  opinion.  He  felt  blue.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  world  looked  gloomy  enough  to  him.  It  was 
miserably  cold.  The  glass  was  low,  —  only  4°  above. 
Furthermore,  his  legs  were  so  lame,  he  could  hardly  loco- 
mote  ;  caused,  probably,  from  having  to  straddle  so  wide 
on  his  broad  rackets.  No  wonder  he  grumbled.  We 
went  in  to  condole  with  him  ;  and  says  B-aed,  — 

"I'm  afraid,  Doctor,  that  the  mercury  is  rather  low 
for  you  this  morning." 

"  00-0-0-0-0,  yes  ! "  he  moaned  out  with  a  creep  and 
a  shudder.  "  0  boys !  this  is  an  awful  climate,  a  dia- 
bolical climate  !  I  wish  I  was  inside  the  tropic  of  Can- 
cer. Why  do  folks  persist  in  living  in  these  frozen 
latitudes,  when  the  equator  invites  to  warmth,  health, 
and  ease  ?  Would  I  were  on  an  island  in  those  balmy 
seas  !  Palms,  spices,  and  odors  of  Araby  the  Blest !  — 
what  a  substitute  for  snow-drifts,  winter  winds,  dark 
forests,  and  frosty  toes  ! " 

The  implied  comparison  so  affected  him,  that  he 
jumped  up,  and,  stamping  on  his  boot,  cried  out  that  it 
did  seem  as  if  "  man  was  born  an  incorrigible  —  fool ! " 
a  mud-head,  with  an  ineradicable,  absurd,  and  insane 
love  of  the  North  ! 

"  Come,  come,  Doctor,"  interrupted  Raed,  "  that's 
mere  jaundice." 

"Jaundice!"  exclaimed  the  Doctor  hotly.  "Well, 
what  would  Napoleon  have  been  if  he  hadn't  had  jaun- 
dice ?  Napoleon,  man  alive,  was  ( mere  jaundice '  per- 
sonified !  Jaundice,  and  not  Napoleon,  turned  Europe 
3 


34  LYNX-HUNTING. 

wocker-side-knockamus  !  Reproach  me  wiLi  my  jaundice 
(which  I  haven't  got,  but  wish  I  had).  Why,  jaundice 
is  the  Archimedean  lever  which  hoists  the  world  up  the 
'  ringing  grooves '  of  civilization  and  go-aheadativeness  ! " 

By  way  of  giving  weight  to  this  axiom,  the  Doctor 
stamped  on  his  other  boot  so  effectively,  that  his  foot 
went  down  through  the  boughs,  and  broke  into  the  snow 
nearly  to  his  knee.  Wash  had  to  help  him  pull  it  up. 
But  the  exercise  resulting  from  the  scuffle,  and  the  ar- 
gument, started  his  sluggish  blood.  He  brightened  a 
little,  and  began  to  take  a  more  hopeful  view  of  things. 

"Well,  boys,"  said  he,  "we  must  take  the  world  as  it 
is,  and  knock  down  difficulties  as  they  rise :  yes,  boys, 
as  fast  as  they  show  their  grim  heads,  give  'em  a  sock- 
clollager  right  between  the  eyes !  Knock  spots  out  of 
?em !  Down  with  'em,  and  stamp  on  their  stomachs ! 
For,  mind  ye  (very  deliberately,  and  with  upraised  fin- 
ger), the  stomach  is  to  the  human  race  what  Achilles' 
heel  was  to  him,  —  his  weak  spot,  his  one  ever-vulner- 
able point.  Hencequently,  if  you  have  an  antagonist, 
lend  him  one  in  the  stomach,  wind  him,  raise  his  dia- 
phragm for  him  ! 

"  Ah  these  stomachs  of  ours ! "  (shaking  his  head 
despondently.)  "  No  use  talking  to  'em !  They've  no 
ears,  as  the  venerable  Grecian  said,  —  no  ears,  and  all 
mouth,  —  guzzle,  guzzle !  — while  the  ever-forming  vacu- 
um clamors  'More,  more/'  even  as"  (slapping  his  waist- 
band) "  I  feel  it  now,  —  gnawing,  gnawing !  How  about 
breakfast  ?  Don't  let  me  hinder  breakfast.  Guess  I'll 
go  round  and  see  how  cold  it  is." 

In  about  three  minutes  he  came  back,  and  reported 


LYNX-HUNTING.  35 

five  degrees  above,  and  rising.  The  bracing  air  behind 
the  camp  had  clearly  invigorated  him.  His  eyes  had 
begun  to  sparkle.  "  Whew,  whew ! "  he  whistled,  smack- 
ing his  lips,  and  snuffing  at  the  spider  of  steak,  "  don't 
this  smell  good  ?  Breakfast,  and  then  —  cats  ! " 

Then  he  told  us  of  the  screeching  he  had  heard  in 
the  night. 

"'Twas  the  cold-bloodedest  noise,"  said  he,  "that 
ever  tingled  my  tympanum.  ?Twas  a  scratching  yawl. 
There  were  long  claws  in  it.  I  positively  could  smell 
their  breaths  as  I  listened.  It  was  resonant  with  assa- 
foetida.  Long  nails  were  ripping  in  it.  Why,  I  could 
seem  to  see  the  hair  fly ! " 

We  laughed. 

"  Fact ! "  cried  the  Doctor,  —  a  brilliant  jeu  d' esprit  of 
an  overwrought  imagination. 

"  Notice  how  cold  it  was  when  you  were  up,  then  ?  " 
Eaed  asked  incidentally. 

"  No,  no,  —  not  particularly,"  said  the  Doctor. 

"  Was  it  snowing  then  ?  "  Wash  inquired. 

"  Snowing  ?  Let  me  see  "  (glancing  guardedly  at  the 
snowy  shrubbery).  "  Yes,  'twas ;  snowing  fast,  I  remem- 
ber now." 

We  had  breakfast ;  and  then,  while  Eaed  and  I  went 
down  to  the  lake  to  cut  a  hole  in  the  ice  for  water, 
Wash  and  Wade  strolled  off  to  reconnoitre. 

The  Doctor,  meanwhile,  got  on  his  snow-shoes,  and 
began  to  practise  the  step,  as  he  remarked  to  us. 

Cutting  a  hole  through  thirty  inches  of  ice  under  three 
feet  of  snow  proved  a  task  of  some  half  an  hour's  du- 
ration. Ere  we  had  got  down  to  the  water,  we  heard 


36  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Wash  calling  to  us ;  and,  before  we  could  comply,  all 
three  of  them  had  gone  off,  taking  Grip  and  the  guns. 

"  Found  a  track,  I  guess/'  B.aed  conjectured. 

Hastily  strapping  on  our  rackets,  we  set  off  on  their 
trail ;  and,  the  Doctor  still  experiencing  considerable 
difficulty  in  taking  the  step,  we  came  up  with  them 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away. 

They  were  hurrying  on,  Wade  leading  the  blood- 
hound by  the  rope. 

"  Oh,  we've  come  upon  a  plunger  of  a  trail ! "  ex- 
claimed Wash,  turning  excitedly  to  explain  to  us. 
"  Just  gone  along !  Since  the  snow  in  the  night ! " 

The  Doctor  was  striding  laboriously,  doing  his  level 
best  to  keep  up.  On  his  countenance  sat  a  grim  resolu- 
tion to  walk  or  die  this  time.  He  did  pretty  well,  too, 
with  both  arms  stuck  out  at  nearly  right  angles  to  help 
keep  his  balance.  If  any  thing  will  bring  a  man  out,  it 
is  game  ahead. 

About  a  hundred  yards  farther  on,  we  came  to  the 
track.  It  was  among  a  clump  of  shrubby  hemlocks 
loaded  down  and  half  buried  in  the  snow,  —  the  same 
headlong  sort  of  trail  we  had  seen  the  previous  evening. 
The  lynx  had  gone  on  a  run,  with  long  bounds,  striking 
all  its  feet  at  once.  At  every  one  of  these  plunges  it 
had  gone  down  fully  two  feet,  sending  the  snow  flying 
and  rolling  all  about. 

But  a  little  to  the  north  of  where  the  boys  had  struck 
the  track  on  first  coming  out,  we  saw  where  the  crea- 
ture had  walked  slowly  along.  I  therefore  concluded 
that  it  had  been  quietly  passing  in  search  of  a  breakfast, 
when  it  either  saw  or  heard  them  coming,  and  ran. 
The  Doctor  came  up. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  37 

"  What  think  of  that  ?  "  demanded  Raed,  pointing  to 
the  grand  plunges  in  the  snow. 

But  the  Doctor  did  not  choose  to  commit  himself  to 
any  premature  opinions. 

"  Great  muscular  development  indicated,"  was  all  we 
could  get  from  him. 

Wade  hurriedly  untied  the  rope  from  Grip's  collar. 
The  hound  was  eagerly  snuffling,  nose  in  the  snow,  and 
tail  in  the  air,  with  loud  snuffings  from  moment  to  mo- 
ment. Immediately  he  felt  himself  free,  he  took  the 
trail  with  a  bound  and  a  grand  hay,  which  made  the 
snowy  woods  resound. 

But  he  wallowed  heavily,  going  in  to  his  body  at 
every  leap.  How  long  would  he  run  ?  was  the  question. 

We  followed  on;  but  Grip  soon  left  us  far  behind. 
His  deep-mouthed  challengings,  given  every  few  seconds, 
led  the  way. 

The  Canada  lynx  is  by  no  means  a  long-winded  or 
very  speedy  animal.  On  good  running,  a  hound  will 
generally  tree  one  in  less  than  an  hour,  starting  on  a 
fresh  trail ;  provided  the  lynx  runs  for  the  dog.  Some- 
times it  will  not  budge  an  inch,  especially  if  the  dog 
comes  upon  it  while  eating  any  thing,  or  upon  a  female 
in  charge  of  her  kittens.  I  have  known  two  instances, 
where  the  hound,  tearing  up  on  the  scent,  has  been  set 
upon  at  sight,  and  frightfully  torn.  Generally,  however, 
they  run  before  the  dog :  so,  also,  will  the  bear  and  the 
gray  wolf.  They  seem  to  instinctively  know  that  there 
is  something  more  formidable  behind. 

The  track  first  led  off  to  a  swamp,  full  of  black, 
mucky  holes  with  open  water,  to  the  north-west,  distant 


38  LYNX-HUNTING. 

rather  more  than  a  mile ;  then,  after  a  few  doublings, 
went  up  boldly  over  a  steep  bluff  crested  with  white 
birches ;  thence  off  to  the  side  of  a  black  mountain  three 
or  four  miles  away.  The  baying  of  the  hound  grew 
fainter  as  we  proceeded.  We  began  to  be  afraid  we 
might  utterly  lose  him  in  the  wilderness. 

Presently  the  regular  ough,  ough  !  ceased  altogether. 
Nothing  was  heard  for  several  minutes.  I  thought  per- 
haps the  chase  had  suddenly  entered  some  deep  ravine ; 
but,  a  little  farther  on,  we  caught  the  echoes  of  a  clear 
long-drawn  howl. 

"  Hurrah  ! "  Wade  shouted.  "  Come  up  with  him  ! 
Calling  us  !  Holed  him,  or  treed  him ! " 

We  hurried  on  with  vast  strides,  following  the  sound, 
and  making  a  straight  cut  for  it.  The  Doctor  began  to 
puff  alarmingly,  and  presently  fell  behind  in  spite  of 
himself.  Wade  and  Wash  began  to  straggle  too. 
Baedway  and  myself  forged  along,  and  got  over  a  couple 
of  miles  in  about  twenty  minutes. 

A  much  nearer  call  from  the  hound  told  us  we  were 
coming  up  with  him.  We  slackened  our  pace,  and  went 
on  as  quietly  as  possible.  A  few  rods  to  the  left,  a 
thicket  of  low  firs  began  to  skirt  the  mountain  -  side. 
Making  a  slight  detour,  we  got  among  these,  and  so 
worked  up  with  slow  steps,  taking  care  not  to  stir  the 
snowy  boughs. 

Pretty  soon   Eaed  whispered,   "S-t-t!     There   they 

nrp  t  J? 

til  O  . 

Looking  out  through  a  vista  of  snow  and  evergreen, 
I  espied  Grip,  steaming  wet,  sitting  under  a  great 
rough  hemlock,  looking  straight  up  into  it.  Following 


LYNX-HUNTING.  39 

his  eyes,  lo !  there,  on  one  of  the  large  lower  limbs 
which  projected  at  nearly  right  angles  from  the  trunk, 
up  about  twenty  feet,  crouched  the  lynx,  its  long  gray 
body  extended  along  the  limb,  and  its  head  turned  on 
one  side,  looking  down  at  the  dog.  From  where  we 
stood,  it  looked  to  be  a  large  creature.  Stretched  out  as 
it  was,  its  body  seemed  to  be  as  much  as  four  feet  in 
length.  On  one  side  we  could  see  its  claws  clutching 
the  bark  of  the  branch.  They  were  as  long  as  one's 
little  finger. 

"  Isn't  he  a  beauty  ? "  Kaed  whispered,  as  a  breath 
of  wind  stirred  its  long  steely  fur. 

We  heard  the  boys  coming  down  in  the  woods  below 
the  thicket. 

"  Suppose  he  will  jump  out  if  he  sees  them  ?  "  ques- 
tioned E-acd. 

He  might ;  but  we  did  not  like  to  shoot  before  they 
had  seen  him.  E-aed  stole  cautiously  back  to  warn 
them ;  while  I  held  the  rifle  cocked,  and  ready  to  fire. 

First  Wash,  and  then  Wade,  came  up  from  behind, 
and  took  a  long  look ;  finally  Raed  piloted  in  the  Doc- 
tor, peering  and  open-mouthed.  He  had  never  seen  one 
before ;  and,  in  his  eagerness  to  get  a  good  look  at  the 
"  patient,"  he  trod  one  racket  on  the  other,  and  stumbled 
slightly,  making  the  snow  crump.  Instantly  the  cat 
whirled  on  the  limb,  and  ran  down  the  trunk  of  the 
tree.  We  heard  its  claws  cut  into  the  rough  bark. 
Grip  bristled  and  bayed.  The  creature  hesitated  an 
instant  when  within  ten  or  a  dozen  feet  of  the  snow, 
growling  loudly.  I  fired;  but,  even  as  I  pulled  the 
trigger,  it  leaped  off  over  the  dog's  head  with  a  snarl, 


40  LYNX-HUNTING. 

and  plunged  into  the  snow,  making  it  fly  lively.  Grip 
wheeled  with  a  quick,  baffled  bark  of  impatience,  and 
sprang  at  the  creature.  But  it  was  too  spry  for  him, 
and  rose  clear  of  the  snow  with  another  leap,  and 
another ;  the  hound  almost  grappling  with  it  at  each  fall, 
both  growling.  In  a  moment  they  were  out  of  sight 
among  the  firs. 

"  Too  bad ! "  muttered  Wash. 

"  Too  quick  for  you,  Christopher,"  condoled  the  Doctor. 
"Dodged  that  ball  like  an  eel ! " 

Kaed  was  loping  off  in  pursuit.  We  all  followed,  and 
had  gone  twenty  rods,  perhaps,  when  we  heard  Grip  yelp 
out  on  a  sudden  as  if  the  beast  had  turned  upon  him. 
The  yelping  was  immediately  followed  by  growls,  and 
a  general  noise  of  fighting  and  worrying.  Without 
stopping  to  even  reload,  I  pushed  on  after  Eaedway, 
who  had  the  other  gun  loaded  with  shot.  We  fairly 
ran,  lumbering  along  Indian  fashion ;  and,  in  a  few 
seconds,  came  in  sight  of  the  game  a  long  ways  ahead. 
There  sat  the  lynx,  with  its  back  to  a  snarl  of  brushy 
shrubs,  facing  the  hound,  its  mouth  open,  panting  and 
growling ;  while  Grip,  lolling  too  violently  to  bark,  sat 
up  not  ten  feet  off.  Both  were  now  fairly  out  of  breath, 
whatever  had  passed  between  them  before  we  came  in 
sight.  The  cat  looked  considerably  the  larger  of  the 
two.  Its  head  was  as  big  as  a  four-quart  measure,  seem- 
ingly. Even  from  where  we  stood,  we  could  see  its  eyes 
glowing  like  spots  of  flame.  The  tasselled  prick  ears 
added  to  the  ferocity  of  its  aspect.  Its  snarls  and 
growlings  were  much  like  those  of  a  domestic  cat  as 
heard  by  night,  intensified  to  correspond  with  the  size. 


LYNX-HUNTING,  41 

Between  them,  they  made  the  forest  resound  with  any 
thing  but  melody. 

"It  won't  do  to  fire,"  said  Eaed.  "Might  hit  the 
hound.  Besides,  it's  too  far  for  me  with  shot.  Load  up, 
and  let's  work  round  to  left." 

Leaving  Wash  and  Wade  with  the  Doctor,  Raed  and 
I  went  off  on  a  circuit,  moving  quietly,  and  keeping  as 
much  in  the  lee  of  the  tree-trunks  as  possible,  till  we  had 
come  within  a  hundred  yards  of  them.  This  position 
did  not  expose  the  dog.  Holding  the  rifle-barrel  against 
one  of  the  spruce-trunks,  I  fired  a  second  shot. 

The  creature  cried  out  sharply,  and  darted  at  the 
hound.  Together  they  rolled  over  and  over  in  the  snow, 
half  burying  themselves.  Grip  yelled ;  but,  before  we 
could  come  up,  he  had  broken  away,  and  run  off  with  a 
pitiful  yelp.  The  beast  lay  kicking  and  writhing  in  the 
snow,  which  was  flecked  all  around  with  great  bright 
red  gouts  of  the  most  vivid-looking  blood.  It  was  still 
growling  with  wheezy,  painful  sounds,  and  trying  hard  to 
get  up ;  in  fact,  kept  getting  up  and  tumbling  over,  wal- 
lowing, snapping,  and  snarling.  E-aed  stepped  forward, 
and,  cocking  one  barrel  of  the  shot-gun,  fired  it  into  the 
creature's  head.  But  it  kicked  a  long  while  after  that, 
even  ;  dying  very  hard,  I  should  say ;  for  my  bullet  from 
the  rifle  had  smashed  its  shoulder,  and  gone  clean 
through  its  breast.  Before  we  dared  to  come  near,  it 
had  sadly  besmirched  its  fur  with  blood  and  the  moist 
snow. 

The  other  boys  came  up  with  the  Doctor.  Grip  was 
limping  about,  whining  with  an  occasional  yelp  and 
howl.  He  had  several  ugly  scratches  and  digs  in  the 


42  LYNX-HUNTING. 

stomach  and  neck.  But  the  Doctor  pronounced  them 
"  flesh-wounds  "  merely,  —  a  verdict  which  seemed,  how- 
ever, in  no  way  to  relieve  the  poor  dog's  distress.  I  felt 
afraid  that  the  punishing  he  had  received  would  make 
him  shy  of  the  game  for  the  future  ;  but  Wade  laughed 
at  the  idea  that  a  bloodhound  of  the  regular  "plantation 
breed57  could  be  cowed  by  any  thing  short  of  a  "square 
killing." 

We  now  turned  our  attention  to  the  game.  The  car- 
cass was  pulled  up  out  of  the  snow,  and,  by  means  of  a 
withe,  hung  up  to  a  neighboring  limb.  It  was  not  so 
heavy  as  it  had  looked  to  be.  The  long  thick  fur  of  this 
animal  adds  greatly  to  its  apparent  size.  Wash  and  the 
Doctor  set  its  weight  at  forty  pounds.  Kaed  thought  it 
might  fall  a  pound  or  two  short  of  that  estimate.* 

"  Well,  Doctor,  what  say  to  him  ?  "  said  I. 

"I  should  say,"  replied  he,  feeling  one  of  its  great 
fur-padded  feet,  whence  the  black  points  of  its  claws 
glistened,  —  "I  should  say  that  it  must  have  been  a  long 
while  since  this  chap  has  cut  his  finger-nails." 

"  Humph !  "  muttered  Wash.  "  This  brute  no  need 
to  run  from  dogs,  if  he  had  the  grit  to  face  'em  ;  or 
from  man,  either.  A  man  would  hardly  be  a  match  for 
one  of  these  creatures." 

"Ever  heard  of  their  attacking  men  ?  "  Raed  asked. 

I  related  the  story  I  had  heard  of  Mr.  A.  P.  Gould 
of  Boston,  who  had  a  desperate  hand-to-hand  fight  with 
one  (an  old  male  lynx)  a  few  years  ago.  Mr.  Gould 
had  only  a  butcher-knife  j  and  the  cat  sprang  upon 

*  Sr?  Field  Notes  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  43 

so  suddenly,  that  he  was  near  being  throttled  for  a  few 
minutes.  However,  by  a  lucky  thrust  he  had  the  good 
fortune  to  kill  the  beast.  And,  about  ten  years  since, 
one  of  the  employes  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  had 
a  smart  tussle  with  one  of  these  creatures.  It  was  at  a 
small  "  station  "  in  the  woods,  not  far  from  the  "  Canada 
line."  The  man  had  left  the  track,  and  gone  to  a  brook, 
at  a  little  distance,  to  drink.  As  there  was  no  dipper, 
he  got  down  on  his  stomach)  after  the  primitive  fashion, 
and  was  "  sucking  away ; "  when  down  dropped  a  lynx 
out  of  a  tree  leaning  over  the  brook,  and  fastened  its 
claws  into  his  back.  From  the  story  the  man  afterwards 
told,  it  would  appear  that  they  had  a  pretty  "warm 
time  "  of  it.  Finally  he  shook  the  creature  off;  but  it 
followed  him,  growling,  some  distance,  as  if  loath  to 
gire  him  up. 

Still  another  instance  occurred  to  an  acquaintance  of 
the  writer's,  who  was  one  night  passing  along  a  lonely 
road  at  about  nine  o'clock.  By  way  of  cane  he  had  a 
stout  stick  of  hornbeam,  as  heavy  as  one  could  com- 
fortably swing.  It  was  a  cloudy  evening  late  in  the 
fall.  He  couldn't  see  much  ;  but,  on  passing  where  the 
road  wound  among  some  bushy  clumps,  he  suddenly 
heard  a  snarling  beside  the  way,  and  then  saw  two  bright 
spots  creeping  up  to  him,  growling  and  snarling  vicious- 
ly. Our  friend  (who  was,  by  the  way,  an  athletic  young 
fellow,  and  feared  nothing  in  the  world  so  much  as  a 
certain  pair  of  black  eyes  he  was  even  then  on  his  wray 
to  visit)  up  with  his  shillalah,  and  made  a  slashing 
charge  on  the  growler,  giving  him  a  whack  which  fairly 
laid  him  out  imvrimis. 


44  LYNX-HUNTING. 

But  the  beast  didn't  stay  laid  out.  Before  our  gallant 
could  recover  arms,  the  cat  had  got  up,  and  jumped 
again  (to  use  the  identical  phrase)  like  "  a  streak  of 
greased  lightnin'."  However,  our  young  friend's  sturdy 
fist  met  it  half  way,  knocking  it  back ;  when  it  received 
a  second  stroke  from  the  hornbeam.  This  was  repeated 
as  many  as  four  times,  till  the  cat  backed  off  into  the 
brush. 

But,  as  soon  as  our  rustic  night-boy  essayed  to  move 
on,  the  lynx  followed  him,  growling  and  "  scolding ; " 
sometimes  stealing  along  the  path  behind,  some- 
times running  on  the  log-fence  which  enclosed  the 
road.  Stoning  wouldn't  disperse  him.  He  was  bound 
to  see  "where  that  feller  was  goin' ; "  in  fact,  followed 
him  clean  into  the  yard  "where  the  old  gent  lived." 
But  a  more  energetic  sweetheart  than  Hero  was  await- 
ing our  sorely-beset  Leander.  She  sallied  out  to  the 
rescue  with  the  "  ole  man's  "  gun.  Between  them,  they 
shot  the  varmint ;  and,  said  niy  friend,  "  'twas  nothin' 
but  a  lucivee,  after  all." 

"Now,  there's  a  girl  worth  the  courting,"  observed  the 
Doctor  meditatively.  "Many  of  that  sort  down  this 
way?  Eh!" 

"  Getting  rather  scarce,  Doctor." 

"  The  more's  the  pity." 

"Think  so?  Well,  the  fact  is,  the  Leanders  who 
would  go  from  seven  to  nine  miles  through  the  woods  by 
night  have  got  scarce  too." 

"No  doubt.     The  age  degenerates." 

"Do  you  really  believe  that,  Doctor?"  demanded 
Wash. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  45 

"  There's  no  doubt  of  it." 

Raed  muttered  something  about  the  mere  fact  of  a 
girl's  shooting  a  lynx  not  constituting  the  acme  of  civili- 
zation, in  his  opinion. 

But  the  Doctor  drowned  him  out  with  a  burst  of  so- 
cial ethics.  "  The  fact  is,  boys,"  he  exclaimed,  —  "  the 
fact  is,  —  and  there's  no  use  trying  to  disguise  it,  —  the 
fact  is,  that  the  Anglo-American  population  of  this 
country  is  dying  out,  —  going  to  seed. 

" '  Where  are  the  Pilgrims  ?  where  the  good  old  days  ? 
Except  the  clergy,  where's  the  man  who  prays  ? 
Alas !  they're  in  the  mansions  of  the  blest,  — 
All  save  a  few  who  chose  to  go  out  West.' " 

"  Humph !  "  from  Kaed.  "  Doctor's  an  anti-progress 
man!" 

"  Not  I !  Quite  the  reverse.  On  the  contrary,  I 
believe  in  putting  a  warranty-deed  of  good  health  and 
long  life  in  the  hands  of  every  man  and  every  woman  in 
these  United  States  forthwith." 

u  Certainly,  certainly ! "  we  all  acquiesced.  And  said 
Kaed,  turning  to  the  game,  "  Who  skins  this  lynx  ?  " 

We  all  made  haste  to  attend  to  this  duty,  not  caring 
to  have  the  merits  of  the  "sirup"  before  the  house 
again. 

The  cat  was  skinned  after  a  fashion.  It  is  one  of 
those  disagreeable  jobs  which  must  be  done,  unless  you 
hire  a  "skinner."  And,  when  a  party  hires  a  skinner, 
Fortune  almost  always  plays  the  trick  of  giving  them 
nothing  to  skin.  Never  tempt  Providence  by  hiring  a 
skinner  beforehand. 


46  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Got  back  to  camp  at  a  little  after  three,  P.M.,  with 
our  trophy.  We  were  desperately  hungry.  It  had  been 
a  long  tramp,  —  a  dozen  miles,  certainly,  in  all. 

The  Doctor  had  extracted  two  of  the  lynx's  nails  for 
mementoes.  They  were  about  two  inches  long,  very 
retractile  and  sharp,  —  evidently  made  for  close  griping. 

The  clouds  had  cleared.  Up  through  the  tree-tops 
gleamed  a  sky  of  the  softest  azure.  The  snow  was 
"  giving,"  and  dropping  off  the  boughs  all  about.  The 
red  squirrels  had  come  out.  At  a  distance  we  saw  a 
marten  chasing  them.  We  had  dinner  and  supper 
together  at  a  little  after  sunset;  and,  feeling  rather  too 
tired  for  reading,  turned  in  at  a  quarter  before  eight. 


THIRD  DAY. 

Colder.  —  The  Hound  in  Bad  Plight.  —  Shooting  Hares. — Facts 
about  the  Northern  Hare.  —  An  Incident.  —  Setting  the  Traps. 
—  The  "Clog."— Glimpse  of  a  Lynx.  — A  Fox.  — Winter 
Fishing.  —  Cutting  the  Hole.  —  Angling  through  the  Ice.  —  A 
Big  Pickerel.  —  Wade's  Adventure.  —  A  Togue.  —  Raed  espies 
an  Unknown  Animal. 

fTlOWABD  morning,  somebody  let  the  fire  go  out 
JL  again.  (What's  everybody's  business  is  often 
nobody's.)  It  had  come  up  cold  too.  At  sunrise,  the 
thermometer  indicated  one  degree  below.  Cold  and 
misery  are  brothers.  We  got  up  pinched,  shivering, 
and  cross.  Had  a  surly  breakfast  at  a  quarter  after 
eight. 

Coffee  and  the  sun-rays  thawed  us  out  somewhat,  — 
not  very  much :  we  still  felt  rather  wintry,  and  not  a 
little  stiff  from  our  excited  trampings  the  previous  day. 

"Going  to  hunt  'em  again  this  morning?"  Wade 
inquired  very  dubiously. 

Grip  was  sore  from  his  scratches ;  the  Doctor  had 
cramp  in  his  legs.  On  the  whole,  we  concluded  to  lay 
over  that  day,  and  set  the  traps.  Of  these  we  had 
seven,  such  as  had  been  previously  used  for  foxes. 

47 


48  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Four  of  these  were  new  ones  with  more  than  ordinarily 
Btiff  springs.  The  three  old  ones  I  had  had  strengthened 
with  extra  springs. 

While  Wade  and  Raed  got  out  the  traps  and  the 
assafcetida;  Wash  and  I  went  out  to  shoot  hares  for 
bait. 

Hunting  hares  in  the  winter  is  a  rather  uncertain 
business.  The  animal  is,  during  the  snowy  season,  of 
BO  nearly  the  same  color,  that  one  may  almost  run  over 
it  unperceived,  unless  he  happens  to  catch  sight  of  its 
blinking  brown  eyes. 

After  a  disappointing  search  of  nearly  half  an  hour, 
—  during  which  time  we  crossed  hundreds  of  tracks  in 
the  new  snow,  —  we  at  last  started  a  couple  from  under 
an  overdrifted  bush.  They  scuttled  out,  and  went 
leaping  noiselessly  off ;  but,  by  a  quick  double-shot,  we 
secured  them  both.  One  of  them  was  about  the  largest 
hare  I  had  ever  seen.  It  would  have  weighed  nine  or 
ten  pounds ;  whereas  the  average  weight  of  our  Northern 
hare  does  not  exceed  six  pounds.  The  other  was  prob- 
ably a  last-summer  leveret,  not  half  the  size  of  the  old 
one. 

Of  the  hare  of  our  Northern  Maine  forests  it  should 
be  remarked,  that  it  differs  considerably  from  the 
species  found  in  Middle  and  Southern  New  England. 
It  is  larger,  and  swifter  of  foot.  Furthermore,  those 
found  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State  are  larger  than 
those  of  the  seaboard;  and,  generally  speaking,  the 
higher  up  we  go  above  the  sea-level,  —  in  this  State,  at 
least,  —  the  larger  we  find  the  hare.  The  hare  of. 
Moosehead  Lake  and  vicinity  is  about  two  feet  and  two 


LYNX-HUNTING.  49 

inches  from  the  nose  to  the  hind-feet.  Its  head  ia 
short,  eye  full,  and  forehead  receding.  The  ears  are 
long,  large,  and  rather  open ;  tail  very  short.  The  hind- 
legs  are  long,  with  but  four  toes  :  the  fore-legs  are  short, 
with  five  toes.  The  feet  are  well  covered  with  long, 
coarse  hair,  which  makes  a  good  brush,  when  dry,  for 
many  purposes.  The  hair  on  the  body  is  also  long  and 
loose,  always  whiter  under  the  body,  and,  in  the  winter, 
white  all  over.  But  in  summer  it  is  of  a  yellowish 
brown,  varying  to  a  red-brown.  Next  to  the  body  there 
is  a  soft,  loose  fur  of  a  silky  texture,  and  leaden-colored 
on  the  back.  This  fur  keeps  its  color  constant.  It  is 
only  the  long  hair  that  changes  when  the  snows  come. 
Little,  timid,  much-despised  creatures  that  they  are,  they 
fill  the  wilderness  to  its  full  capacity  of  supporting 
them.  They  breed  in  myriads,  and  have  no  weapon  of 
defence  save  flight.  They  are  the  prey  of  every  prowler 
of  the  forest. 

It  is  rare  that  one  finds  a  hare  in  good  condition.  I 
never  yet  saw  one  that  could  be  termed  "  fat." 

Four  years  ago,  while  a  party  of  us  boys  were  camp- 
ing at  Seeboomook  Meadows,  we  were  obliged,  from 
scarcity  of  game,  to  live  on  hare-venison  for  a  week ;  and 
a  pretty  lean  time  we  had  of  it  too.  We  found  the 
meat  quite  destitute  of  flavor,  and,  judging  from  our 
feelings,  of  nutrition  as  well.  It  is  very  light  colored, 
and  looks  as  poor  as  it  tastes. 

Hares  multiply  very  fast.  I  never  saw  less  than 
three  in  one  litter ;  often  there  are  five  ;  and  I  once  found 
six  of  the  little  fellows  cuddled  in  a  nest.  Commonly 
there  are  four ;  and  I  know  of  no  more  amusing  sight 

4 


50  LYNX-HUNTING. 

than  one  of  these  families  when  the  leverets  are  about 
a  week  old.  The  old  hares  are  then  very  attentive  and 
watchful,  and  will  rise  on  their  hind-legs  to  look  around 
at  the  slightest  sound.  They  rear  two  litters  in  a 
season. 

Our  Northern  hare  does  not  often  burrow  in  the 
ground,  but  makes  a  nest  of  soft,  dry  grass  and  moss 
under  a  brush-heap,  or  beneath  the  thick  foliage  of  low 
evergreens.  The  young  nurse  for  about  three  weeks; 
when  they  gradually  leave  the  nest  and  mother  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  I  have  often  picked  them  up  in  the 
woods  ;  and,  when  you  find  one,  you  may  be  almost  sure 
that  the  rest  of  the  litter  are  within  a  few  rods  of  you. 
They  are  born  with  a  good  dress  of  brown  hair,  eyes 
open,  and  teeth  well  cut  through. 

Hares  live  chiefly  on  the  buds  and  tender  twigs  of 
small  bushes  and  annual  plants.  They  are  especially 
fond  of  yellow-birch  twigs. 

The  voice  of  the  hare,  when  frightened  or  hurt,  is  a 
shrill,  high  note,  uttered  rapidly  on  the  same  key.  It 
has  a  very  sad,  plaintive  sound.  Some  have  compared 
it  to  the  filing  of  a  saw  in  a  saw-mill.  They  also  emit 
a  low,  peculiar  grunt  when  near  each  other,  which  seems 
to  be  a  sort  of  language,  by  means  of  which  they  make 
known  their  wishes  and  wants. 

A  camp-fire  always  attracts  them.  While  "  camping 
out,"  we  used  frequently  to  shoot  them  in  the  evening, 
after  we  had  lain  down  and  every  thing  was  still.  They 
would  then  come  up  in  sight  of  the  fire.  They  stamp 
with  the  feet  like  sheep,  the  sound  of  which,  when  they 
are  jumping  about  a  camp,  often  resembles  the  steps  of 


LYNX-HUNTING.  51 

a  heavy  animal.  I  recollect  one  nigh*,  while  we  were  at 
Mt.  Katahdin,  that  we  all  got  a  fright  from  one  that 
came  into  our  camp,  and  leaped  plump  upon  one  of  the 
boys  while  asleep.  He  sprang  up  with  a  shout,  which 
waked  us  all  in  a  twinkling.  It  was  some  minutes 
before  we  found  out  that  it  was  only  a  rabbit  that  had 
charged  upon  us. 

Hunters  depend  almost  wholly  on  the  hare  for  bait 
for  their  traps,  when  trapping  the  larger  game. 

While  at  our  old  camp  at  Seeboomook  Meadows,  I  re- 
member that  one  evening  we  wanted  to  set  a  trap  for  a 
wild-cat  that  had  been  hanging  round  for  several  nights. 
To  bait  it,  we  needed  a  hare  ;  and,  as  there  were  plenty 
of  them  all  about  us,  I  caught  up  a  pole,  and  ran  out  to 
knock  one  over.  But  I  had  to  go  farther  than  I  had 
expected  to  find  one,  as  is  generally  the  case. 

It  was  growing  dusk,  and  I  was  about  turning  back, 
when  I  happened  to  espy  one  "budding"  from  a  low 
bush  several  rods  ahead.  Between  me  and  him  there 
were  a  couple  of  largish  stones.  I  crouched  down  and 
crept  up,  keeping  out  of  sight  behind  them.  Reaching 
the  stones,  I  peeped  over :  there  sat  the  hare,  not  a  rod 
off,  browsing  leisurely.  He  hadn't  heard  me.  I  was 
just  raising  my  pole  to  hit  him,  when  from  behind  a 
little  shrub-spruce  there  bounded  out  a  big  lynx  with 
an  eager,  raspy  growl.  The  hare  doubled  about,  and 
then  dived  into  a  hole  under  some  old  roots  close  beside 
the  stones  behind  which  I  was  hiding. 

The  lynx  tore  and  dug  at  the  roots  a  moment ;  then, 
finding  he  couldn't  get  at  the  hare,  stood  up,  and  fairly 
screeched  with  rage.  He  was  a  savage-looking  chap, 


52  LYNX-HUNTING. 

I  kept  quiet,  and  was  not  sorry  to  see  the  creature  walk 
off. 

After  considerable  beating  about,  Wash  started  a 
third,  which  leaped  a  few  rods,  then  stopped,  and  sat 
looking  at  him.  I  came  up  with  the  gun,  and  shot  it. 
Picking  him  up,  we  started  to  go  back ;  and  had  got 
within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  camp,  when  a  fourth 
bobbed  out  from  under  a  fir  almost  exactly  upon  the 
trail  we  had  gone  out  on.  There  was  no  second  track ; 
from  which  we  inferred  that  the  hare  had  been  lying 
quietly  there  while  we  had  passed,  almost  stepping  on 
the  fir.  Indeed,  it  is  well  to  carry  a  long,  sharp  stick 
to  try  the  snow-buried  shrubs  with. %  Often  they  will 
be  found  to  shelter  a  hare  that  has  been  "  rusticated  " 
there  for  a  day  or  two.  Especially  will  this  be  found 
to  be  the  case  immediately  succeeding  a  heavy  fall  of 
snow.  Securing  this  fourth  animal,  we  rejoined  our 
companions  with  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  pounds  of 
venison,  which,  however  innutritions  as  an  article  of 
human  diet,  would  do  very  well  for  trap-bait. 

The  boys  were  waiting  for  us  rather  impatiently. 
Impatience  is  the  common  lot  of  waiters,  —  unprofes- 
sional ones,  at  least.  The  Doctor  had  been  down  to  the 
"hool"  (in  the  ice)  after  water.  He  had  discovered 
fish  in  the  lake.  While  he  had  stood  looking  down  into 
the  hole,  a  fish's  head  had  popped  up  to  seize  a  crumb 
or  bit  of  something  floating  there. 

"And  I  propose,  boys,"  said  he,  "to  divert  our  toils 
by  the  practice  of  the  '  gentle  art/  Fresh  trout  would 
be  a  gracious  luxury  even  at  our  sumptuous  tables." 

"  So  we  might ! "  c  -led  Wash.    «  What's  to  hinder  ?  " 


LYNX-HUNTiNG.  53 

"Nothing;  unless  it  is  lack  of  hooks,"  Eaed  ob- 
served. 

As  fishing  through  the  ice  is  a  favorable  winter 
pastime  in  Northern  Maine,  I  had,  at  the  outset,  be- 
thought myself  to  take  a  few  stout  lines  with  hooks. 

It  was  immediately  agreed  to  set  the  traps,  and,  after 
dinner,  go  fishing.  All  hands,  therefore,  got  on  rackets, 
and  set  out,  carrying  traps,  bait,  guns,  axe,  &c.  We  left 
Grip  tied  up  to  heal  his  wounds. 

A  hundred  rods  north  of  the  camp  we  saw  where  a 
lynx  had  gone  past  not  many  hours  previous.  But, 
having  fired  repeatedly  during  the  morning,  we  sup- 
posed it  would  be  better  to  take  the  traps  to  a  consider- 
able distance;  and  accordingly  kept  on  to  where  the 
swamp  we  had  crossed  the  preceding  morning  extended 
back  to  the  northward,  between  the  mountains  and  the 
wooded  headlands  along  the  lake-shore. 

After  the  snow  gets  to  be  three  and  four  feet  deep,  not 
only  the  lynx,  but  all  sorts  of  game,  take  naturally  to 
the  low,  densely- thick eted  lands,  which  offer  a  more 
secure  retreat  than  the  open  woods.  The  swamp  was 
full  of  cedar  and  hackmatack,  which,  with  its  trailing 
mosses,  formed  a  succession  of  pale-green,  gauze-like 
curtains. 

Here  we  found  a  perfect  congeries  of  tracks  and  trails 
netting  up  the  snow,  and  crossing  each  other  in  every 
direction.  In  some  places  about  the  open,  mucky  spots, 
the  snow  was  trodden  hard  by  the  scores  of  wild  feet 
which  had  come  either  for  drink  or  prey.  All  about 
were  the  traces  of  many  a  death-struggle, — bits  of  gray 
fur,  and  hares'  feet  by  the  dozen.  Here  and  there  a 


54  LYNX-HUNTING. 

die  of  feathers  showed  that  some  incautious  partridge  had 
been  stolen  upon,  or  perhaps  dug  out  of  the  snow  where 
it  had  dived  for  refuge  from  the  storm ;  lynx-tracks 
by  the  half-dozen,  sometimes  leaping,  as  if  in  full  chase 
or  on  a  frolic,  but  more  frequently  walking  slowly  and 
catlike,  with  footprints  as  large  as  one's  fist  struck 
knuckles  down  into  the  snow,  and  not  four  inches  apart. 

There  were  also  other  tracks  of  nearly  the  same  size, 
but  of  rather  different  shape,  made  by  some  creature  we 
were  not  quite  certain  of.  And  at  one  place  we  saw 
tracks,  seemingly  rather  largely  than  those  of  a  lynx, 
made  one  after  the  other,  like  a  fox-track,  nearly  two 
feet  apart  as  the  creature  walked.  Wash  was  sure  this 
was  a  catamount:  the  Doctor  inclined  to  that  opinion; 
but  the  re?t  of  us  chose  rather  to  regard  it  as  a  large 
lynx,  or  possibly  a  gray  wolf.  Occasionally  a  very  large 
lucivee  is  found  in  this  region,  —  some  old  male,  gaunt 
and  tall  as  the  largest  of  hounds.  Then  there  were 
marten-trails  from  tree  to  tree;  for,  besides  the  cedar 
and  hackmatack,  there  were  standing  about  tall,  un- 
healthy-looking black  ashes,  sixty  and  even  a  hundred 
feet  in  height,  with  scarcely  any  top  save  the  one  mossy 
stem  beset  with  warts  and  gnarls.  • 

Yet,  despite  all  these  signs  of  game,  we  saw  nothing 
save  an  occasional  squirrel  barking  noisily  from  his 
perch.  The  quick  eyes  or  ears  of  the  larger  quadrupeds 
had  detected  our  approach  ere  we  had  caught  sight  of 
them. 

We  set  two  of  the  traps  beside  one  of  the  open 
holes,  baiting  each  with  half  a  hare,  suspended  from  a 
branch  four  or  five  feet  over  the  trap.  The  bait  was 


LYNX-HUNTING.  55 

first  cut  and  rendered  gory,  then  scented  with  assafoeti- 
da.  The  trap  was  set,  and  the  chain  attached  to  a 
black-ash  "clog"  about  four  feet  long,  and  weighing, 
for  a  guess,  thirty  pounds. 

If  the  chain  is  made  fast  to  a  tree  or  root,  both  the 
lynx  and  the  bear  will  very  frequently,  in  the  first  fright 
and  fury  of  the  trap's  springing,  either  tear  their  feet 
out  from  between  the  jaws,  or  else  break  the  chain. 
Hunters  generally  deem  it  safer  to  chain  t  on  a  clog. 
The  beast  will  then  start  off  on  a  run,  dragging  it,  and 
thus  spend  its  strength  till  fairly  tired  down,  when 
it  may  be  approached  and  killed.  Often,  however,  this 
method  implies  a  long  tramp  to  come  up  with  the  game. 
A  bear  will  frequently  go  six  miles  with  trap  and  clog ; 
and  sometimes,  even  then,  free  himself  by  smashing  the 
trap  to  pieces  on  a  rock.  An  old  fellow  of  my  acquaint- 
ance tells  me  that  he  has  lost  two  large  bear-traps  in 
this  way.  The  bear  seemed  to  have  deliberately  pound- 
ed the  trap  on  a  stone  till  it  fell  off  its  foot,  —  a  pretty 
good  thing  for  a  bear  to  do,  certainly  !  For  your  clumsy, 
honest  old  bear  is  not,  to  tell  the  truth,  either  the  most 
witty  or  the  most  intelligent  of  quadrupeds ;  at  least,  it 
strikes  me  so  from  such  observation  of  its  habits  as  I 
have  been  able  to  make. 

To  conceal  the  traps  as  much  as  possible,  and  banish 
the  scent,  we  strewed  them  over  with  partridge-feathers 
from  one  of  the  "puddles." 

Going  on,  we  set  another  in  a  narrow  run  beside  still 
another  of  the  steaming  muck-holes.  This  one  we  dis- 
guised with  moss  from  one  of  the  hackmatacks,  scented 
with  assafoetida. 


56  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Farther  along  we  set  two  around  the  place  where  a 
fox  had  been  killed  and  the  half-gnawed  bones  lay  scat- 
tered about.  The  inhabitants  of  these  wilds  seem 
scarcely  to  live  in  that  state  of  primitive  peace  and  fe- 
licity which  marked  the  golden  age.  They  are  essen- 
tially biters  and  devourers  of  each  other.  How  the  poor 
little  hare  —  the  prey  of  them  all,  from  the  marten  to 
the  bear  —  manages  to  live  at  all  is  a  daily  wonder  to 
me.  But  live  it  does.  Its  track,  even  in  this  den  of 
rapine,  is  the  most  numerous  of  all.  But  its  life  must 
consist  of  one  continuous  series  of  dodgings  and  dou- 
blings. Savage  eyes  hunt  it  by  day  and  by  night.  The 
common  tradition  is,  that  it  sleeps  with  one  eye  open, 
and  one  ear  retroverted. 

Leading  up  out  of  the  swamp  on  the  north-west  side, 
we  came  upon  a  beaten  lynx-trail.  Evidently  a  great 
many  of  these  creatures  made  this  a  sort  of  public  high- 
way from  the  mountain  to  the  swamp.  We  followed  it 
up  for  nearly  half  a  mile,  and  set  the  two  remaining 
traps  at  intervals. 

We  had  a  momentary  glimpse  of  a  lynx  disappearing 
among  the  tree-trunks  at  a  distance,  and,  while  going 
back  along,  espied  a  solitary  wayfarer  of  a  red  fox  trot- 
ting off  with  jaunty  brush  carried  well  up  out  of  the 
snow. 

Bears  we  hardly  expected  to  see  at  this  season.  Bruin 
keeps  his  den  and  sucks  his  paw  (so  hunters  say)  during 
the  colder  months,  thus  keeping  up  a  sort  of  circle  of 
nutrition. 

It  is  said  also  that  the  bear,  at  the  approach  of  win- 
ter, fills  its  stomach  with  spruce-gu  ^,  —  a  substance  not 


LYNX-HUNTING.  57 

easily  digested,  certainly.  On  the  strength  of  ;hia 
"  cud "  it  sustains  life  till  warmer  weather.  I  do  not 
know  whether  this  theory  was  ever  established  by  actual 
dissection  of  a  bear's  stomach,  or  not.  I  have  heard 
woodsmen  argue  it  from  the  fact  that  they  had  seen 
spruce-trees  with  the  gum  scratched  off  at  the  height  of 
four,  five,  and  seven  feet  from  the  ground.  But  one  fre- 
quently meets  with  hemlock  and  maple  trunks  scratched 
in  the  same  manner.  Nearly  all  of  the  wild  carnivora, 
including  also  the  domestic  cat,  have  the  habit  of 
"  sharpening  their  claws "  in  this  way.  On  two  occa- 
sions I  have  seen  the  lynx  do  the  same  thing.  Before 
starting  off  on  a  hunt,  they  will  get  up,  stretch,  and  pro- 
ceed to  sharpen  up,  just  as  every  one  has  so  often  seen 
old  Tabby  do  it  against  a  kitchen-chair. 

After  dinner  —  which,  by  the  by,  differed  but  very 
little  from  breakfast  or  supper  —  we  got  out  our  fishing- 
tackle,  and,  with  nothing  better  than  a  chunk  of  beef 
for  bait,  went  down  to  the  "  hool "  to  fish  for  the  Doc- 
tor's trout.  A  hook  was  baited  and  dropped  in.  As 
the  hole  was  not  more  than  a  couple  of  rods  from  the 
shore,  and  the  water  not  over  three  or  four  feet  deep,  I 
was  not  nearly  so  much  surprised  as  the  Doctor  seemed 
to  be  that  there  were  no  bites. 

After  these  lakes  freeze,  the  fish  keep  mostly  in  the 
deeper  portions,  off  from  the  cold  shores.  Some  heat  is 
always  finding  its  way  up  from  the  interior  fire-reser- 
voirs of  the  earth.  The  sinks  of  the  lakes,  which  are 
often  fifty  and  a  hundred  feet  in  depth,  are,  consequently, 
warmer  than  the  shoaler  reaches.  These  are  the  places 
to  be  tapped  by  the  fisherman.  On  a  strange  lake  it 


58  LYNX-HUNTING. 

takes  a  tolerably  good  eye  for  topographical  features  to 
hit  upon  these  sinks.  Their  locality  is  generally  indi- 
cated, to  some  extent,  by  the  formation  of  the  shores. 
Still  one  may  often  guess  wrong.  Depressions  under 
water  do  not  always  correspond  to  hills  above. 

Not  to  be  baffled,  we  went  back  for  our  snow-shoes ; 
and,  taking  our  axe  and  the  impromptu  snow-shovel 
which  the  mechanical  genius  of  Mr.  Raedway  had  manu- 
factured from  a  section  of  pine-log,  we  started  down 
the  lake. 

About  half  a  mile  below  our  position,  and  out,  per- 
haps, three  hundred  meters  from  the  shore,  there  were 
a  couple  of  small  islands  covered  with  low  bushes  and  a 
few  shaggy  pitch-pines.  Passing  these,  we  went  on  for 
near  three-fourths  of  a  mile,  till  we  were  off  opposite 
the  place  where  the  swamp  bordered  the  lake.  On  the 
lower  side  of  the  bog  as  it  extended  along  the  lake,  and 
near  the  foot  of  a  sort  of  hummock,  there  was  a  patch 
of  open  water,  —  a  very  unusual  circumstance  at  this 
season  and  at  this  latitude,  and  one  only  to  be  occasioned 
by  the  entry  of  some  warm  stream  from  a  mucky  swamp. 

Seeing  this  open  stretch,  I  knew  there  would  be  likely 
to  be  fish  about  it.  The  light,  and  also  the  warmth  of  the 
water,  would  attract  them.  So,  going  up  to  twelve  or  fif- 
teen rods  of  the  open  water,  from  which  the  bright  sun- 
shine was  reflected  with  mirrorlike  faithfulness,  we  se- 
lected a  place.  Wash  then  shovelled  out  the  snow  from 
a  spot  about  six  feet  square.  The  snow  itself  was  towards 
three  feet  in  depth :  so  that,  by  the  time  he  had  got 
down  to  the  ice,  he  stood  within  a  sort  of  "  rifle-pit," 
piled  all  around  with  the  chunks  he  had  removed,  and 


LYNX-HUNTING.  59 

showing  only  his  head  to  outsiders.  Getting  down  into 
this  pit,  Raed  and  I  began  the  job  of  cutting  a  hole. 

I  may  remark  that  we  three  generally  had  to  do  the 
work  part.  Wade  never  much  affects  the  development 
of  that  industrial  lubricant  commonly  known  as  "  elbow 
grease."  And  as  for  the  Doctor,  we  regarded  him  as  an 
emeritus  personage,  —  excused  by  courtesy  from  manual 
labor.  But  honors  of  this  sort  are  at  best  rather  doubt- 
ful ones  on  the  forty-fifth  parallel  in  January.  To 
stand  idle  means  to  stand  and  shiver.  The  worker  is 
decidedly  the  best  off:  work  means  warmth  and  com- 
fort. But  people  do  not  readily  part  with  long-standing 
prejudices. 

It  took  some  thirty  minutes  to  cut  through ;  for  the 
scarf  had  to  be  constantly  cleared  of  the  loose  chip- 
pings.  Then,  waiting  a  few  moments  to  get  breath  and 
let  it  settle,  we  skimmed  out  the  floating  bits,  and  had 
at  our  feet,  down  thirty  or  thirty-two  inches,  a  hole  of 
about  fifteen  inches  diameter,  at  the  bottom  of  which 
the  water  looked  black  as  ink.  No  ray  of  light  pene- 
trates the  thick  strata  of  snow  and  ice.  Beneath  them 
the  waters  are  as  dark  as  if  no  sun  had  ever  shone  to 
give  the  colors  birth.  All  inert  matter  is  black,  I  sup- 
pose ;  or,  as  Wade  epigrammatically  puts  it,  "  Nature  was 
a  nigger  till  the  sun  shone." 

Wash  baited  his  hook  and  dropped  in,  slowly  paying 
out  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  of  the  line.  In  less  than 
three  minutes,  there  came  so  smart  a  tug  as  to  nearly 
twitch  him  into  the  hole.  He  held  on,  however.  We 
grabbed  at  the  line  to  assist  him.  All  five  of  us  had  a 
hand  on  it,  down  on  our  knees,  and  sprawling  about  the 


60  LYNX-HUNTING. 

hole.  The  fish  had  fairly  hooked  himself,  and  now 
surged  from  side  to  side  with  amazing  spitefulness,  fret- 
ting the  line  against  the  sharp  edges  of  the  ice,  and 
sawing  it  into  our  fingers.  For  a  few  moments,  it  was 
as  sharp  a  fight  as  I  ever  witnessed. 

"  Must  be  a  walloper,  boys  ! "  cried  the  Doctor,  barely 
saving  his  cap  from  going  into  the  hole. 

Gradually  it  got  more  docile  ;  and  Wash  drew  it  up  to 
the  ice.  But,  just  as  its  head  came  in  sight,  it  made  a 
second  bolt,  and,  jerking  the  slack  line  through  Wash's 
fingers,  ran  off  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  before  he  could 
renew  his  hold.  Where  the  line  slid  through  his  hand 
it  cut  the  skin  in  two  or  three  places,  so  sharp  was  the 
friction.  Eaed  caught  hold  again,  and  they  drew  it  up 
more  gradually.  Raising  it  to  the  surface,  they  lifted 
it  out,  —  we  were  all  gazing  expectantly,  —  one,  two, 
nearly  three  feet  long !  —  a  grand  old  pickerel,  savage  as 
a  wolf,  and  snapping  with  a  mouth  like  an  alligator's. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  one  might  have  put  his 
gloved  fist  into  its  mouth.  Indeed,  a  pickerel  comes  as 
near  being  "  all  mouth "  as  any  creature  in  existence. 
It  is  the  shark  of  our  fresh-water  ponds  and  lakes.  The 
name  itself  would  seem  to  be  a  diminutive  of  the  word 
"  pike,"  to  which  family  of  fishes  the  pickerel  belongs. 

This  one  must  have  weighed  nearly  or  quite  eight 
pounds.  The  hook  was  firmly  caught  in  its  gills.  It 
lay  gasping  on  the  ice  at  our  feet.  Nobody  cared  to  lay 
hands  on  it ;  but,  after  it  had  grown  tolerably  quiet, 
Wade  essayed  to  disengage  the  hook.  Even  then  it 
snapped,  perhaps  spasmodically  rather  than  from  design  ; 
and,  if  his  hand  had  not  been  thickly  gloved,  he  would 


LYNX-HUNTING.  61 

have  been  severely  scratched  by  the  rough  serrated 
teeth.  Raed  dug  a  hole  in  the  snow-wall  of  our  "  pit ;  " 
and  we  thrust  it  in  to  keep  it  from  flopping  back  down 
the  hole.  But  it  did  not  rest  quiet  in  its  snowy  cell 
We  heard  it  squirming  at  intervals  for  nearly  half  an 
hour. 

The  wind  had  begun  to  blow;  and  along  the  crust 
the  loose  snow  came  creeping  and  sifting  in  upon  us. 
Wash  climbed  out,  and,  taking  the  shovel,  piled  up  a 
breastwork  on  the  windward  side  high  enough  to  shield 
our  heads. 

Shortly  after  the  wind  began  to  pipe,  the  water  in 
the  hole  began  to  discharge  bubbles;  great  ones  too, 
and  a  multitude  of  them,  — plop-plop,  plop-plop  !  The 
Doctor  had  dropped  in  his  hook ;  so  had  Wade.  As 
three  lines  in  one  hole  was  about  as  many  as  could  con- 
veniently manoeuvre,  Raed  and  myself  stood  by  as 
supernumeraries ;  ready,  however,  to  bear  a  hand  in  case 
of  "big  bites." 

The  Doctor  presently  hooked  a  small  pickerel,  weigh- 
ing, perhaps,  a  pound  and  a  half;  and  Wash  caught 
another  two-pounder.  But,  after  catching  an  eight- 
pound  fish,  there  was  nothing  very  exciting  in  such 
catches  —  for  lookers-on.  B.aed  was  looking  out  of  one 
pit,  eying  the  silent,  wooded  shores  which  enclosed  the 
vast  white  lake.  Presently  he  touched  my  elbow. 

"  Game  !  "  he  whispered,  pointing  off  across  the  open 
water  to  the  foot  of  the  low  hummock  which  cornered  on 
the  swamp  and  the  lake. 

"  Where  ? "  said  I  j  for  I  did  not  at  first  detect  any 
thing. 


62  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  On  that  old  pine-stump  i  p  a  little  from  the  water. 
Don't  you  see  it  sitting  there  ?  " 

I  did  now,  distinctly,  —  a  long-bodied  animal,  black  as 
a  crow.  It  sat  crouching  in  a  singular  sort  of  way 

"  Watching  us,"  said  Eaed. 

It  seemed  to  be. 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  he  queried. 

I  hardly  knew. 

"  Must  be  a  fisher,  I  think,"  said  he,  taking  out  his 
glass. 

"Yes"  (after  a  look),  "I  guess  that's  a  fisher  fast 
enough." 

I  took  the  glass;  but  it  did  not  look  much  like  a 
fisher.  It  was  seemingly  too  long-bodied.  Its  ears 
were  too  small ;  and  it  had  a  very  large,  broad  muzzle : 
so,  at  least,  it  seemed  to  me  from  where  we  stood. 

"  Suppose  he  would  show  fight  if  we  were  to  go  round 
there?"  B,aed  questioned.  "Chance  for  a  fancy  shot,  at 
any  rate.  Distance  two  hundred  meters,  more  or  less. 
Let's  see  you  drop  him  off  that  stump  with  the  rifle." 

"  What's  up  ?  "  exclaimed  Wade,  overhearing  the  con- 
versation, and  turning  from  the  hole. 

"  Another  cat,  is  it  ?  "  cried  the  Doctor  facetiously. 

"Is  that  a  fisher,  Wash?"  said  I. 

Wash  turned  from  his  line :  they  had  all  three  turned, 
leaving  their  lines  hanging  in  the  water.  Wash 
thought,  with  me,  that  it  was  too  broad  a  nose  for  a 
fisher ;  and  Raed  was  saying,  that  perhaps  we  had  best 
not  frighten  it  by  firing,  but  bring  down  a  trap  and  set 
for  it,  when  a  great  jerk  of  Wade's  person  from  be- 
hind reminded  him  rather  forcibly  of  his  line. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  63 

«  A  bite !  " 

The  jerk  was  followed  by  another,  which  tugged  him 
so  violently,  that  he  took  a  leap  across  the  hole  perforce. 
The  mouth  of  the  hole  was  slippery ;  and,  a  third  strong 
surge  at  the  line  succeeding  at  almost  the  same  mo- 
ment, one  foot  slipped  in,  and  down  he  went  to  his  body 
with  a  most  agonized  expression  of  countenance.  We 
all  lay  hold  of  him  on  the  instant.  Indeed,  the  hole  was 
hardly  large  enough  to  take  him  through.  [Here  allow 
me  to  add  a  word  of  advice  to  winter  fishermen  on  our 
lakes  :  Never  cut  a  hole  big  enough  to  let  yourself 
through  :  it  is  better  not  to  give  the  fish  undue  advan- 
tages.] Wade  hadn't  let  go  the  line:  it  was  wound 
round  his  hand.  We  pulled  him  out,  and  all  seized 
hold  with  him ;  but  such  downright  forceful  tugs  I 
never  felt  from  a  fish.  He  made  us  all  dance  round  the 
hole.  Any  ordinary  line  would  have  snapped  like 
thread ;  but  this  was  a  genuine  cod-line,  such  as  we  had 
used  on  board  the  yacht.  The  water  fairly  boiled  in 
the  hole.  But  gradually  the  fish  spent  its  strength,  and 
merely  hung  back  mulishly  when  we  tried  to  pull  it  up, 
with  an  occasional  run  off.  We  drew  it  in,  and,  after 
several  unsuccessful  efforts,  got  its  head  entered  at  the 
bottom  of  the  hole.  It  was  then  lifted  out,  —  a  noble 
fish,  a  true  togue-tTOut.  I  hope  none  of  my  readers 
will  think  I  am  telling  a  "  fish-story  "  when  I  say  that 
that  trout  would  have  weighed  seventeen  pounds  if  an 
ounce.*  But  from  living  so  long  under  the  ice,  where 
there  was  little  or  no  light,  the  spots  on  its  sides  and 

*  Togue-trout  have  been  taken  from  these  lakes,  weighing  thirty-live 
pounds,  on  at  least  two  occasions. 


64  LYNX-HUNTING. 

back  had  faded ;  all  its  colors  had  paled ;  its  fins  were 
almost  white:  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  in  good  condi- 
tion. The  Doctor  was  greatly  elated. 

"Fish  enough  for  one  day!"  cried  he,  spatting  his 
wet  hands. 

"But  our  black  friend  has  slipped  away  during  the 
fracas,"  E-aed  remarked. 

Sure  enough,  the  creature  had  disappeared  from  tho 
stump. 

It  was  getting  toward  sunset. 

"  We  shall  hardly  have  time  to  bring  a  trap  and  set 
for  him  to-nigh t,"  said  Wash. 

So  we  put  the  matter  over  for  the  next  day,  and  went 
back  to  camp  with  our  fish. 

Togue-trout  are  a  very  fine  table-fish.  We  boiled 
about  one-half  this  one  that  evening,  and  ate  it  all  (save 
the  bones)  with  butter  and  cracker-fixings.  Of  course, 
we  had  rare  appetites ;  but  I  doubt  whether  a  more  tooth- 
some dish  could  have  been  set  out  at  any  hotel  in  the 
State.  Sitting  there  on  the  hemlock  in  our  camp-door, 
we  supped  in  barbarous  profusion,  with  a  huge,  roaring 
red  fire  warming  up  the  whole  place,  and  a  strong  odor 
of  burning  pine  pervading  all  the  air. 

Along  in  the  night  some  time,  the  Doctor  awoke  us. 
He  had  got  up  to  mend  the  fire. 

"  Just  come  out  here  a  minute,  and  hark  !  "  he  was 
saying. 

One  after  another,  we  scrambled  out.  Off  in  the 
woods,  in  the  direction  of  the  swamp  it  seemed,  there 
was  a  caterwauling  of  some  sort  going  on.  A  cold  wind 
blew  fitfully ;  but  in  the  intervals  of  the  gusts  we  could 


LYNX-HUNTING.  65 

hear  sounds  of  feline   disturbance,  sometimes  distinct, 
then  seemingly  distant  and  far-borne. 

"  Guess  some  of  7em  are  in  our  traps,"  said  Wash, 
"Got  their  toes  pinched." 

We  stood  listening  for  some  minutes.  On  a  sudden 
there  was  a  wild,  sharp  scream,  piercing  as  the  screech 
of  a  file,  followed  immediately  by  a  chorus  of  yawlings. 

"  It's  a  fight ! "  muttered  Eaed. 

"That  screeching  is  just  such  a  noise  as  I  heard  the 
other  night,"  remarked  the  Doctor.  "  This  isn't  a  very 
peaceful  country,  I'm  afraid." 

The  sounds  ceased  after  a  while.  We  listened  a  few 
minutes  longer ;  then  replenished  the  fire,  and  went  back 
to  bed, — not  before  Wash  had  expressed  his  stereotyped 
opinion,  that  "that  last  screech  was  made  by  nothing 
less  than  a  catamount." 

Heard  in  the  night,  such  noises  are  rather  startling. 
ft 


FOUKTH  DAY. 

Fried  Pickerel.  —  We  go  to  visit  the  Traps.  —  A  Disappointing 
State  of  Things. — A  Clew  to  the  Screechings.  —  Trap  gone. 
—  On  the  Trail.  — A  Long  and  Imprudent  Chase.  —  The  Game 
turns  up  most  Unexpectedly.  —  A  Lively  Tussle.  —  Supperless.  — 
A  Night  out.  —  A  Cold  Time  of  it.  —  Grim  Hunger. 

"OREAKFAST  (fried  pickerel  and  steak)  over,  we 
I  )  set  off  to  visit  the  traps. 

We  were  all  expectant.  The  noise  in  the  night  was 
sufficient  to  excite  curiosity,  if  nothing  else.  With 
queer  feelings  of  whimsical  anticipation,  and  not  without 
cautious  glances  ahead,  we  drew  near  the  place  where 
we  had  set  the  first  two  traps. 

But  they  were  just  as  we  had  left  them ;  and,  with  our 
extravagant  expectations  somewhat  dashed,  we  went  on 
to  the  next,  which  was  likewise  unmolested. 

"  Humph  ! "  grumbled  Wash.  "  They  know  too  much 
for  us ! " 

But,  on  coming  out  where  we  had  set  the  two  traps 
around  the  fox-bones,  we  found  a  different  state  of 
things.  There  lay  one  of  the  traps  sprung,  and  thrown 
all  in  a  heap ;  and  a  little  way  off  we  found  the  other, 
also  sprung,  with  the  black  foot  and  shank  of  some  ani- 
mal fast  in  the  jaws;  and  not  only  this  foot,  but  there 

66 


LYNX-HUNTING.  67 

were  also  gnawed  bones,  and  bits  of  black  fur,  lying  all 
about.  Half  a  dozen  yards  away,  Wade  espied  a  rather 
long  black  tail,  evidently  gnawed  off  near  the  body,  and 
rejected. 

"Well,  I'll  be  blessed!"  was  the  Doctor's  comment. 
"  Eaten  up,  and  the  bones  picked  ! " 

"But  what  sort  of  a  beast  do  you  call  that?"  de- 
manded Eaed. 

Judging  from  the  foot,  the  tail,  and  the  claws,  I 
thought  it  might  have  been  a  fisher  (Mustela  Caria- 
densis).  Evidently  it  had  got  into  our  trap,  and  there 
been  eaten  up  alive  by  some  larger  beast.  Possibly 
this  fisher  had  been  the  captor  of  the  fox  whose  bones 
he  had  come  back  to  repick,  and  thus  got  into  the  trap. 
A  fisher  would  have  no  difficulty  in  mastering  a  fox, 
once  he  had  caught  it;  but  the  animal  is  a  slow  one. 
Its  short  legs  unfit  it  for  the  chase. 

"  Suppose  that  was  the  tussle  we  heard  from  camp 
last  night  ?  "  Wash  queried. 

It  seemed  quite  possible. 

"  But  what  ate  him  up  ? "  questioned  the  Doctor, 
turning  the  bones  with  the  nose  of  his  racket. 

"That's  telling,"  laughed  Eaed. 

I  suggested  that  it  might  very  likely  have  been  a 
drove  of  lynxes ;  for  these  animals  often  go  in  small 
packs  of  from  four  to  eight. 

But  Wash  couldn't  believe  that  it  was  lynxes,  and 
assured  us  that  it  was  "nothing  less  than  a  panther." 

We  might  have  been  able  to  have  made  a  guess  from 
the  tracks ;  but  the  snow  all  about  was  fairly  trodden 
hard.  There  were  plenty  of  lynx-tracks  to  be  identified 


68  LYNX-HUNTING. 

off  at  a  little  distance,  coming  in  and  going  off  from  tlie 
place ;  also  many  others  not  so  easily  made  out,  for  the 
trails  intersected  and  overran  each  other  in  every  direc- 
tion. 

After  the  manner  of  more  professional  hunters,  we  re- 
set the  traps,  and  went  on  to  the  lynx-trail  leading  up 
the  side  of  the  mountain.  The  first  of  the  traps  set 
here  was  as  we  had  left  it;  but  the  bait,  which  had  been 
suspended  to  a  bough  over  it,  was  gone,  and  the  bough 
broken  down.  Whatever  prowler  had  taken  it,  he  had 
also  taken  good  care  to  keep  his  feet  off  the  trencher. 

Going  on  to  the  second  and  farthermost,  we  found  it 
gone,  —  bait,  clog,  and  all :  in  fact,  we  had  some  per- 
plexity in  determining  the  place.  But,  a  little  higher 
up,  Wade  espied  where  the  creature  left  the  beaten  trail, 
and  ran  off  toward  a  thicket  at  some  distance,  dragging 
the  clog  after  it. 

"He's  in  that  thicket !"  exclaimed  Wash.  "Let's 
surround  him ! " 

"  But  you  don't  know  what  it  is  yet,"  Baed  observed. 
"  It  may  be  one  of  your  catamounts,  Wash." 

"  You  needn't  laugh,  fellows,"  retorted  Wash.  « It 
would  be  no  joke  to  have  one  of  those  panthers  drop 
down  on  our  backs  from  a  tree-top." 

We  all  heartily  concurred  with  him  that  it  would  be 
no  joke. 

Baed  and  I  moved  off  to  the  right,  making  a  detour 
of  several  hundred  yards  to  come  round  on  the  west 
side  of  the  thicket,  leaving  the  other  two  boys  with  the 
Doctor  to  follow  up  the  trail  the  creature  had  made. 
Wade  had  the  rifle  j  Baed  and  I  had  the  double-bar- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  69 

relied  gun.  It  was  a  clump  of  firs,  covering,  perhaps,  an 
acre.  We  closed  in  cautiously,  having  little  doubt  that 
the  lynx  was  in  cover  of  it,  watching  our  movements. 

Meanwhile  the  other  boys  had  come  up  on  the  south 
side.  We  could  hear  them  shooing.  But  nothing 
stirred.  Then  they  began  to  throw  dead  limbs  and  old 
knots  to  "  make  him  skurry."  We  didn't  much  like  to 
push  in  among  the  thick  evergreen,  where,  possibly,  the 
beast  might  be  lurking,  all  ready  to  jump.  But  we  had 
our  labor  and  caution  for  our  pains  merely ;  for  the  cat 
had  gone  out  on  the  south-west  side.  Wash  and  the 
Doctor,  skirting  the  thicket  on  the  left,  came  upon  the 
trail,  and  shouted  to  us. 

Then  we  all  set  off  again ;  and  descending  into  a 
ravine  full  of  alders,  winding  among  which  was  a  brawl- 
ing brook  murmuring  hoarsely  under  the  ice,  we 
climbed  the  opposite  side,  and  came  out  upon  another 
hemlock- thicket,  into  which  the  lynx  had  dragged  the 
trap.  Not  to  be  taken  in  a  second  time,  however,  we 
passed  immediately  around  the  thicket,  and  found  where 
the  creature  had  come  out  of  the  hemlock,  near  a  clump 
of  large  basswoods,  one  of  which  it  seemed  to  have  tried 
to  climb  ;  but  the  clog  had  probably  proved  too  heavy. 

By  this  time  it  was  about  noon.  We  were  three 
miles  from  camp. 

"  Oh,  why  hadn't  we  taken  a  lunch  !  "  groaned  Wade. 

"  What's  to  be  done  ? "  was  the  question.  It 
seemed  rather  unsportsmanlike  to  leave  the  trail  to  go 
back  for  dinner.  Whether  dinner  was  really  worth  a 
tramp  of  six  miles  was  doubtful.  [Before  the  next 
aiorning,  we  had  less  doubt  on  the  subject.] 


70  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  I  move  we  push  on,"  said  Raed.  And,  after  a  brief 
halt,  we  did  so,  and,  for  the  next  two  hours,  tramped 
steadily  forward,  over  ridges,  down  into  gullies,  follow- 
ing the  heavy  trail.  Wherever  a  thicket  showed  itself 
among  the  old  growth,  the  cat  had  made  for  it,  only  to 
ahandon  it  after  a  brief  rest. 

From  such  indications  as  the  track  afforded,  I  judged 
that  the  lynx  was  several  hours  in  advance  of  us.  But 
we  had  all  along  expected  to  come  up  with  it  aftor  every 
few  hundred  yards.  It  seemed  impossible  that  the  ani- 
mal could  keep  on  so  far  and  so  steadily  — on  three  legs 
—  with  the  trap  and  a  clog,  which  could  hardly  have 
weighed  less  than  thirty  pounds.  The  snow,  too,  was 
deep  and  soft.  The  creature  went  in  to  its  belly  at 
every  leap. 

After  resting  a  few  minutes,  we  set  out  again.  We 
were  now  fairly  in  for  it.  To  go  back  was  to  lose  all  we 
had  done.  The  situation  raised  a  certain  point  of  honor 
or  spunk.  To  go  on  now  seemed  the  only  thing  we 
could  consistently  do,  though  we  were  getting  rather 
faint  from  want  of  dinner. 

For  the  next  hour  the  track  meandered  up  the  side 
of  a  long  saddle-backed  mountain,  clad  toward  the  sum- 
mit with  an  airy  growth  of  white  birch  and  poplar,  with 
here  and  there  a  beech,  to  which  the  dry  leaves  still  clung, 
rustling  drearily  in  the  winter  wind.  From  the  top  of 
the  ridge  we  looked  off  over  a  vast  snowy  wilderness  to 
the  north-west.  At  the  foot  of  it  was  a  small  pond,  not 
more  tl  an  a  couple  of  miles  in  length,  girt  about  with 
the  usual  belt  of  melancholy  alders.  Without  a  word, 
Eaed  strode  off  down  the  slope  toward  the  pond ;  and. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  71 

with  merely  a  fumble  in  my  pockets  to  see  if  I  had 
matches,  I  followed  the  rest.  But  I  knew  we  were  pre- 
paring hardships  for  ourselves. 

Adown  the  mountain-side  the  cat  had  gone  with 
long  leaps.  Often,  in  plunging  into  the  snow,  we  saw 
where  the  momentum  of  the  clog  and  trap  had  sent  it 
heels  over  head.  The  snow  would  be  all  trodden  down 
in  spots  where  the  poor  brute  had  scrambled  about,  try- 
ing, no  doubt,  to  free  itself.  Here  and  there,  too,  the 
snow  was  blotched  with  blood  where  the  tightly-grip- 
ing iron  jaws  had  worn  at  its  unlucky  leg. 

By  the  time  we  had  got  down  to  the  pond-shore,  the 
sun  had  set  behind  the  dark  spruce  ridges  on  the  other 
side.  The  trail,  as  discerned  in  the  twilight,  led  right 
out  across  the  pond;  and,  as  the  animal  was  nowhere 
to  be  seen  along  the  snow-bound  ice,  it  was  apparent 
that  it  had  entered  the  woods  along  the  other  shore. 

Here  we  drew  up,  with  dubious  glances  into  each 
other's  faces. 

Had  we  not  better  halt  here,  build  a  fire,  and  try  to 
get  through  the  night  as  comfortably,  or  as  little  uncom- 
fortably, as  possible  ?  I  presumed  that  the  Doctor  was 
about  used  up.  But  he  unexpectedly  showed  blood. 

"  Boys,"  said  he,  "  one  spurt  more  ! "  and  struck  out 
upon  the  ice. 

We  strode  after  him. 

It  was  rather  over  half  a  mile  across,  —  a  thousand 
meters,  according  to  Raed's  method  of  estimating  dis- 
tance. Dusk  was  falling  over  this  whole  wild,  vast, 
snowy  region  as  we  climbed  up  through  the  alders  and 
entered  among  the  dark  spruces.  Keeping  on  for  ten 


72  LYNX-HUNTING. 

minutes  more,  the  snow-crested  crags  of  a  long  moun- 
tain, forming  the  wall  of  the  pond-basin  on  the  north- 
west side,  began  to  show.  The  larger  spruces  thinned 
out  among  fallen  rocks  of  prodigious  proportions,  which 
had  rolled  down  from  the  crags.  The  snowy  heads  of 
those  bowlders  showed  over  a  black  scrub-growth,  and 
gave  a  singular,  wild  look  to  the  darkening  landscape. 
The  Doctor  was  still  ahead.  He  seemed  determined  to 
show  us  what  he  could  do,  and  stuck  to  the  trail  like  a 
hound.  He  pushed  on  through  the  dark  evergreen, 
which,  frozen  hard,  brushed  our  faces  like  a  rasp,  and 
tangled  our  rackets.  We  were  close  behind.  Eaed  was 
next  to  him.  The  other  two  boys  were  behind  me.  We 
were  hurrying  forward. 

All  at  once  there  was  a  rush,  a  growl,  quick  as  a 
flash  !  I  heard  the  Doctor  shout  out.  E-aed  was  push- 
ing through  the  boughs.  They  flew  back  in  my  face. 
At  the  same  instant,  he  either  stumbled  or  jumped  back 
against  me,  the  tails  of  his  rackets  treading  down  the 
noses  of  mine.  We  both  blundered  over  in  the  snow, 
and  scrambled  to  get  up. 

The  Doctor  was  calling  for  help,  help !  the  cat  snarl- 
ing and  niiawling,  and  the  trap  rattling.  Wash  dashed 
past  us,  cocking  the  rifle;  and  I  got  up  on  one  knee 
in  time  to  see  the  Doctor  flat  on  his  back  in  the 
pnow,  half  buried,  with  both  feet  kicking  up,  and  the 
rackets  dangling  like  a  couple  of  Choctaw  shields.  The 
lynx,  trap  and  all,  was  partly  on  him,  grabbing  and 
tearing  at  the  rackets  and  his  legs.  He  kicked  so  vig- 
orously, that  the  beast  couldn't  get  down  to  his  face. 
All  the  time,  too,  he  was  squalling  like  a  "  sweet  six- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  73 

teen"  for  "help."  Wash  charged  up,  and  fired  the  rifle 
in  the  cat's  face.  Never  touched  it,  either.  [It  was 
afterwards  shown  that  the  ball  cut  through  the  "  spread  " 
of  one  of  the  Doctor's  snow-shoes.]  The  lynx,  blind 
with  fury  and  pain,  let  go  the  Doctor,  and  darted  at 
Wash  before  he  could  so  much  as  strike  once.  Over 
they  both  went  into  the  light  snow.  Wash  gave  a  horri- 
fied yell,  mightily  like  a  dog's.  Baed  had  got  one  foot 
right ;  but  his  other  toe  was  out  of  the  strap.  He  gave 
a  grand  bound ;  but  couldn't  quite  make  a  get-up  of  it, 
and  tumbled  over  on  his  side.  I  caught  the  gun  out  of 
his  hands,  and  clubbed  it  to  strike  down  the  brute,  when 
somebody  fired  from  close  behind.  The  hot  smoke  flew 
in  my  face.  The  lynx  yawled,  and  rose  up  to  spring ; 
but  I  cracked  it  over  the  head  with  the  gun-stock  so 
sharply,  that  it  fell  down,  clanking  the  trap.  Before 
I  could  have  repeated  the  blow,  it  was  up  again,  and 
would  have  jumped,  had  not  Wade,  who  had  caught 
the  rifle  from  Wash's  prostrate  grasp,  dealt  it  a  sec- 
ond stunner.  Then  we  both  laid  on  to  it  whackerty- 
whack  /  a  dozen  blows.  It  lay  stunned ;  dead,  perhaps : 
but,  to  make  a  sure  thing  of  it,  I  fired  a  charge  of  shot 
into  its  head,  which  did  the  business  effectively.  Eaed 
had  got  up  completely  this  time.  The  Doctor  and 
Wash  had  got  partly  up. 

"Hurt,  Doctor?"  "Hurt,  Wash?"  we  all  cried  out 
in  tones  of  solicitude. 

Wash  declared  himself  unhurt ;  but  he  had  a  bad 
scratch  across  the  back  of  his  left  hand,  either  from  the 
lynx's  claws  or  something  else,  and  several  very  severe 
lacerations  in  his  coat-sleeves. 


74:  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"Did  he  scratch  you,  Doctor?  "  Baed  demanded. 

The  Doctor  had  got  on  his  legs  (with  another  verjf 
snowy  back)  ;  but  he  was  hiccoughing  violently. 

"He  (hie)  didn't  get  (haec)  at  my  (hoc)  throat, 
exactly ;  but  (hiccup)  the  varmint's  head  took  me  (a 
whole  string  of  hies)  between  wind  and  water  when 
he  first  jumped.  Knocked  my  breath  out,  just  about." 

"  Eat  some  snow,  Doctor,"  Wade  advised. 

"  Hold  up  the  first  two  fingers  of  your  right  hand, 
and  count  forty,"  amended  Baed.  "  That'll  cure  'em." 

"  But  who  iired  that  second  shot  ?  "  said  I.  "  That's 
what  astonished  me." 

"  It  was  my  pistol,"  said  Wade. 

"  Doctor,  what's  the  matter  with  the  bottoms  of  your 
pants  ?  "  Baed  inquired. 

We  all  naturally  looked  as  directed.  The  Doctor's 
trousers-legs,  from  the  knee  down,  were  all  slit  to  pieces. 
Done  by  the  creature's  claws. 

Gradually  we  were  able  to  get  a  long  breath.  The 
beast  was  dead  now,  certainly ;  but  the  fright  it  gave 
us  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 

The  Doctor  averred,  that,  the  first  he  saw  of  the  beast, 
he  beheld  it  coming  in  mid-air. 

Our  thoughts  began  to  revert  to  our  present  situa- 
tion, —  eleven  miles  from  camp,  with  night  closing  in. 
Not  a  pleasant  status  of  affairs. 

"  We  could  hardly  find  our  way  back,  even  were  we 
not  too  tired  to  do  it,"  Baed  remarked. 

To  camp,  and  pass  the  night  somehow,  was  the  only 
alternative.  We  had  no  axe  with  us.  This  aggravated 
our  case.  For  our  fire,  we  should  be  dependent  on  what- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  75 

ever  dry  wood  might  be  picked  up  above  the  snow. 
Not  to  lose  time,  we  sallied  out  in  different  directions 
before  it  should  become  too  dark.  Raed  and  I  were 
together ;  and,  even  after  going  thirty  or  forty  rods,  we 
found  nothing  fit  to  feed  a  fire  any  length  of  time. 

"  Shall  have  to  go  fireless  to  bed,"  Raed  was  repeat- 
ing, with  a  dolorous  attempt  in  the  comic  vein,  when  we 
heard  Wade  calling  at  a  distance. 

"  This  way,  this  way !  "  the  dark  woods  were  echo- 
ing. 

Coming  up,  we  found  him  pulling  bright  splinters 
from  the  stump  of  a  broken  spruce  which  had  fallen 
upon  several  smaller  ones,  crushing  them  down  with  it. 
The  boughs  were  dry.  We  broke  them  off  by  the  arm- 
ful ;  and  these,  with  the  splinters,  contributed  fuel  for  a 
brisk  blaze,  which  was  soon  crackling  about  the  slivered 
stump.  We  then  cut  a  profusion  of  green  boughs  with 
our  pocket-knives,  and  piled  the  snow  with  them. 

Meanwhile  Wash  and  the  Doctor  had  dragged  along 
the  carcass  of  the  lynx ;  and,  having  no  supper  to  en- 
gross our  attention,  we  proceeded  to  take  its  "jacket " 
off  by  the  light  of  our  fire,  having  first  hung  the  car- 
cass up  to  a  neighboring  bough.  We  performed  this 
"  last  office,"  as  Wash  called  it,  with  the  greater  haste, 
because  we  did  not  wish  the  body  to  get  cold  and 
oecome  rigid. 

It  makes  me  shudder  as  I  write  when  I  think  of  the 
way  we  got  through  that  night.  Our  fire  was,  with  our 
utmost  efforts,  but  a  poor  one.  We  all  five  lay  down  on 
the  boughs  before  it,  and  snuggled  together  as  lovingly 
as  puppies.  But,  despite  all  "  cuddling,"  we  were  far 


76  LYNX-HUNTING. 

from  comfortably  warm.  I  don't  think  any  of  us  went 
fairly  to  sleep.  We  were  each  too  cold  and  hungry, 
and  generally  miserable,  for  slumber. 

Ah  !  that  was  a  wretched  night.  We  cringed  there 
torpid  with  chill  j  and  the  long  hours  crawled  on.  We 
didn't  say  much.  Recalling  it,  I  seem  to  see  the  gory 
body  of  the  cat  hanging  there  before  our  eyes,  —  a 
ghastly  spectacle  in  the  nickering  light.  Long  before 
morning,  it  was  frozen  hard. 

I  doubt  whether  ever  transported  convict  hailed  the 
last  day  of  his  exile  with  greater  joy  than  we  beheld 
the  first  faint  streaks  of  daylight  that  morning.  As 
soon  as  it  was  barely  light,  we  took  our  "  pelt,"  and 
started  back  on  our  trail. 

Judge,  reader,  if  you  can,  how  faint  and  hungry  we 
must  have  been.  Yet  the  walk  was  preferable  to  lying 
there  shivering.  After  a  few  fruitless  efforts  at  a  joke, 
we  subsided  into  silence,  and  plodded  on,  on,  on,  dog- 
gedly. That  was  a  long-to-be-remembered  tramp.  If 
I  recollect  aright,  it  lacked  a  few  minutes  of  nine  wh^  a 
we  at  length  reached  camp. 


FIFTH  DAY. 


A  Question  of  Eating  or  Sleeping.  —  Coffee  and  Hasty-Pudding.  — 
A  Snooze.  —  A  Start.  —  An  Unexpected  Visitor.  —  Mr.  Durkee 
and  his  very  Exciting  Tales  of  the  "  Lucivee." 

EEADER,  were  you  ever  in  the  condition  that  you 
didn't  know  whether  to  eat,  or  go  to  bed?  —  hun- 
gry enough  to  faint,  tired  enough  to  drop  ? 

For  my  own  part,  1  felt  undecided :  I  think  we  all  did. 
So  we  appealed  to  the  Doctor,  as  medical  adviser,  to  tell 
us  which  we  ought  to  do  first.  "  Hang  it  all,"  quoth 
this  disciple  of  ^Esculapius,  "we  ought  to  take  some- 
thing warm  into  our  stomachs  immediately !  But  who 
cares  ?  I'm  half  dead  with  fatigue  ! " 

And,  by  way  of  illustrating  his  prescription,  he  stum- 
bled into  the  shelter,  and  flung  himself  on  the  blankets. 

But  Raed  and  the  rest  of  us  took  a  more  sensible 
view,  I  hope.  There  was  no  doubt  that  the  Doctor's 
professional  opinion  was  worth  something. 

"  Let's  have  coffee,  anyway,'7  said  Wash. 

"  And  a  hasty-pudding,"  Wade  added ;  this  latter 
"  staple  "  being  a  dish  of  which  he  is  particularly  fond. 

"  It  rests  lightly  on  the  stomach ;  digests  easily :  we 
can  go  to  sleep  on  it,  with  no  danger  from  apoplexy," 
he  urged. 

77 


78  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"Hasty-pudding  it  is,"  said  K-aed,  "with  sugar  only." 

"  Coffee  and  hasty-pudding  for  five ! "  exclaimed 
Wash,  seizing  the  axe  to  split  up  wood.  "Oh,  if  we 
had  only  had  the  axe  and  this  dry  pine  with  us  last 
night !  Oo-o-o-ogh  !  " 

A  fire  was  kindled :  and,  in  course  of  half  an  hour, 
the  pudding  was  ready ;  also  the  coffee. 

Poor  Grip  had  been  whining  dolefully.  We  had  left 
him  tied  to  keep  him  out  of  the  traps.  He,  too,  had 
gone  supperless.  No  doubt  he  had  been  lonesome. 
Wade  hastened  to  give  him  a  breakfast  of  beef  and 
half  a  hare,  —  frozen. 

Raed  got  the  Doctor  up ;  and  we  broke  our  long  fast 
with  a  relish ;  then  "  fixed  "  the  fire,  and  turned  in  for 
a  snooze.  By  this  time  it  was  ten  o'clock.  .  .  . 

A  noise —  it  was  Grip  barking  out  grufily  —  awoke  me, 
A  man  was  standing  in  the  doorway,  —  a  man  with  a 
fur  cap  pulled  over  his  ears ;  and,  the  appearance  of  a 
man  being  an  occurrence  quite  unlocked  for,  I  got  up 
somewhat  hastily.  But  it  was  a  jovial,  good-humored 
face  that  was  looking  in  upon  us. 

"Halloo!"  it  said. 

"  Halloo  ! "  said  I.     "  What's  wanted  ?  " 

"  Oh !  nothing.  Saw  your  camp :  thought  I'd  just 
look  in.  Dog  tied  ? "  (For  Grip  was  growling  omi- 
nously.) 

I  made  haste  to  assure  him  that  the  hound  was  hard 
and  fast,  and  bade  him  "  come  in."  His  genial  phiz 
was  recommendation  enough.  The  other  boys  were 
rousing  up. 

"  Thanks,"  said  he ;  and  then  (well  aware,  no  doubt, 


LYNX-HUNTING.  79 

that  strangers  in  these  wilds  are  generally  expected  to 
give  an  account  of  themselves),  "Name  Durkee, — W. 
H.  Durkee:  at  your  service,  gentlemen.  Am  'boss7  of 
a  lumber-camp  up  here  on  the  '  Black  Stream.'  Was 
going  down  to  the  settlement.  Saw  your  smoke  from 
the  top  of  the  ridge  back  here  :  so  came  round.  Trap- 
ping ?  "  with  a  nod  to  the  two  "  pelts  "  hanging  against 
the  evergreen  on  the  back-side  of  our  camp. 

I  explained  in  the  affirmative.  Meanwhile  the  other 
boys  and  the  Doctor  were  getting  up,  with  as  friendly 
nods  as  persons  fresh  from  sleep  could  be  expected  to 
give.  The  Doctor  shook  hands  with  him,  incidentally 
remarking  that  it  had  the  appearance  of  being  a  fine 
day.  "  Yes,  yes ;  so  it  does,"  said  Durkee,  laughing 
heartily.  "  So  it  does  —  what  there  is  left  of  it.  But 
you  all  seem  to  be  taking  it  easy  here." 

Raed  detailed  the  causes  of  our  seeming  sloth. 

"  Ah  !  you  didn't  have  your  clog  heavy  enough,"  was 
Mr.  Durkee's  comment.  "  Tell  ye,  they'll  drag  a  big 
one  !  Muscular  animal,  those  luciveesf  " 

But  when  the  Doctor,  in  his  happy-go-lucky  style, 
came  to  tell  how  the  lynx  had  jumped  at  him,  Durkee's 
amusement  was  unbounded. 

"  Puts  me  in  mind,"  he  exclaimed,  "  of  the  first  scrim- 
mage I  ever  had  with  one  of  them,  — more  than  a  dozen 
years  ago,  when  I  lived  at  home,  down  in  Upton  Planta- 
tion, Oxford  County.  My  father  was  one  of  the  first 
settlers  there.  These  '  lucivees '  —  as  we  always  used  to 
call  'em  — were  thick  as  rabbits  all  about;  but  they 
never  troubled  us  much  till  "  — 

"  Hoi  1  on,  hold  on  !  "  I  exclaimed.     "  We  all  want  to 


80  LYNX-HUNTING. 

hear  that ;  but  let's  have  supper  first.  It's  almost  sun- 
set now.  We've  been  asleep  ever  since  ten  o'clock,  Dur- 
kee." 

"  Supper  with  all  my  heart !  "  cried  our  visitor.  "  To 
tell  the  truth,  I've  had  nothing  save  a  cold  lunch  since 
six  this  morning." 

We  all  fell  to,  and,  in  less  than  an  hour,  had  a  bounti- 
ful spread  of  steak,  fried  pickerel,  fried  (frozen)  potatoes, 
corn-cake  and  butter,  and  mince-pie.  Durkee  —  who  was 
seemingly  a  man  of  about  five  and  twenty  —  "showed 
us  how  to  eat,"  as  he  expressed  it ;  and  I  must  say  for 
him,  that  he  knew  all  about  it.  After  every  thing  had 
disappeared,  the  Doctor  invited  him  round  to  see  how  the 
glass  stood.  Just  how  high  it  stood  I  did  not  inquire. 

By  this  time  it  was  dark.  A  great  fire  was  got  under 
way ;  and  we  all  sat  down  in  the  doorway. 

"  Now  for  that  story,  Mr.  Durkee,"  said  Wash. 

"  Yes,  give  us  that  story,"  we  all  chimed  in. 

"  Well,  yes.  Let  me  see :  where  was  I  ?  Oh !  as  I 
was  saying,  these  lucivees  never  troubled  us  much  till 
father  began  sheep-raising :  then  we  had  to  look  out  for 
the  young  lambs  pretty  sharp.  The  time  I  spoke  of 
getting  so  scared  was  the  second  spring  we  were  there. 
We  had  one  lamb  quite  early  in  the  winter,  and  the 
girls  had  brought  it  up  in  the  house;  and,  when  the 
snow  began  to  go  off,  it  used  to  go  out  upon  the  bare 
spots,  nibbling  about. 

"  One  noon,  as  we  went  in  to  dinner,  I  saw  the  lamb  on 
a  little  knoll  behind  the  house,  not  more  than  five  rods 
away.  Well,  while  we  were  at  dinner,  the  lamb  disap~ 
peared.  We  never  saw  it  again,  but  could  guess  pretty 


LYNX-HUNTING.  81 

near  what  had  bacome  of  it;  and  one  of  our  neighbors 
afterwards  told  us  that  he  saw  a  large  animal  crossing 
the  fields  about  noon,  but  thought  it  was  a  dog. 

"  I  knew  that  the  animal,  whatever  it  might  be,  after 
getting  such  a  nice  taste,  would  be  likely  to  hang  about 
for  a  while.  We  had  a  large  bear-trap  ;  and,  going  out 
into  the  bushes,  I  shot  a  rabbit  for  bait,  and  set  it 
down  in  the  old-growth  woods  with  a  clog. 

"  We  didn't  get  him  that  night :  but  the  next  night, 
just  as  we  were  going  to  bed,  we  heard  a  terrible 
screeching  down  where  the  trap  was ;  and  I  knew  we 
had  either  got  the  old  chap,  or  pinched  him  pretty 
hard. 

"  'Twas  a  moonlight  night,  and  very  light ;  full  moon, 
I  think.  We  found  the  trap  gone,  and  started  on  the 
trail  made  by  the  trap  in  the  moss  and  brush.  My 
Brother  Dave  and  I  were  ahead :  father  and  old  John 
Putnam,  who  happened  to  be  at  our  house,  were  coming 
on  behind.  Boy-like,  we  were  highly  excited,  and  had 
a  great  deal  more  zeal  than  wisdom.  After  following 
for  about  half  a  mile,  we  came  out  into  an  open  place, 
and  were  leaning  forward  on  a  dog-trot,  one  behind  the 
other,  when  we  were  completely  upset  by  the  lucivee 
coming  against  us  with  a  spit  and  a  growl.  Quick  as 
thought,  I  was  knocked  flat,  and  went  rolling  over  and 
over  in  the  brush,  with  the  cat  top  of  me,  grappling  and 
growling,  and  the  old  bear-trap  clanking.  One  pull  of 
his  long  claws  had  stripped  my  stout,  home-made  jacket 
clean  off  me,  except  the  arms ;  and  if  the  dog  had  not 
sprung  upon  him,  and  taken  his  attention,  he  would 
have  done  my  job. 


82  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  "We  scrambled  back  out  of  his  reach  pretty  quick 
He  had  one  foot  in  the  trap ;  and  there  he  stood  at  bay, 
rattling  the  chain,  and  screeching  at  us.  His  big  round 
eyes  seemed  to  shoot  out  flashes,  he  was  so  rnad.  The 
usual  color  of  their  eyes  is  like  bright  silver ;  but,  when 
mad,  they  flash  strangely.  In  a  few  moments,  father 
came  up  and  shot  him.  It  was  the  largest  one  I  ever 
saw. 

"I  was  pretty  cautious  about  chasing  a  trap  after  that, 
you'd  better  believe. 

"  Another  time,  while  I  was  trapping  in  the  Moosehead 
region,  I  recollect  coming  out  one  night  into  an  opening 
known  as  '  Dolman's  Clearing.'  The  place  had  a  bad 
name,  and  was  generally  shunned  by  hunters.  A  mur- 
der was  said  to  have  been  committed  there  some  years 
before  ;  and  there  was  the  usual  bosh  about  the  old  log- 
house  being  haunted.  It  was  a  dismal  sort  of  a  place. 
Commonly,  I  should  have  preferred  camping  out  to 
spending  the  night  there :  but  it  had  been  raining 
several  days ;  every  bush  was  a  shower-bath,  and  I  was 
thoroughly  soaked,  —  a  fact  which  made  any  kind  of  a 
shelter,  where  a  fire  could  be  kindled,  look  inviting. 
The  old  house  was  in  a  very  tumble-down  condition. 
The  door  and  windows,  if  there  ever  were  any,  were 
gone.  But  there  was  a  loft,  having  a  loose  floor  with  a 
trap-door  hole,  where  there  had  probably  been  a  ladder 
some  time.  Well,  I  built  a  fire,  cooked  my  supper,  dried 
my  clothes,  and,  being  pretty  well  tired  out,  soon  went 
to  sleep.  I  don't  know  how  long  I  had  slept ;  but,  some 
time  along  in  the  night,  I  found  myself  awake,  with  a 
terrific  screech  ringing  in  my  ears,  —  such  a  pealer,  that 
I  was  on  my  feet  before  I  was  fairly  awake. 


LYNX-HUNTtNG.  83 

"  My  fire  had  gone  down,  and  it  was  dark  as  Egypt.  I 
confess  I  was  a  little  scared.  All  the  nonsense  I'd 
heard  about  old  Dolman's  ghost  popped  into  my  mind  ; 
and  there,  in  the  night,  I  felt  half  inclined  to  swallow 
it.  I  hadn't  seen  a  single  human  being  for  more  than 
three  weeks  ;  and  had  got  kinder  lonesome,  I  suppose. 

"  All  was  still  enough  now.  It  had  slacked  up  raining, 
and  the  fireflies  were  flitting  about.  I  went  out  and 
listened.  Every  thing  seemed  quiet  and  regular ;  and, 
after  poking  and  harking  around  a  while,  I  began  to 
think  that  perhaps  I  might  have  been  fooled  by  a  bad 
dream.  So  I  lay  down  again,  and  by  and  by  dozed  off 
into  a  drowse,  I  think ;  for  I  thought  I  was  being 
charmed  by  a  black  snake,  and,  starting,  found  myself 
staring  up  at  the  hole  in  the  chamber-floor,  where  I  saw 
two  bright  spots,  about  a  hand's-breadth  apart,  that 
shone  and  glowed  like  coals  of  fire.  It  took  me  a 
moment  to  collect  my  wits ;  and  then  I  knew  it  must  be 
some  animal  of  the  cat  kind.  I  put  my  hand  out  for 
my  rifle ;  and,  the  moment  I  stirred,  there  came  another 
yawl.  The  gun  wasn't  where  I  thought  I  had  put  it ; 
and,  knowing  the  creature  would  jump,  I  sprang  up  just 
as  he  leaped  down  through  the  hole. 

"  If  I'd  only  got  hold  of  the  gun,  I  might  have  shot 
him  :  for  he  stood  glaring  at  me  a  moment,  with  his 
back  up,  making  a  queer  wheezing  noise ;  then  bounded 
through  one  of  the  window-holes,  and  disappeared.  I 
knew  it  must  be  a  lucivee  by  the  peculiar  screech. 
He  was  probably  up  in  the  loft  when  I  came  in,  and 
had  been  watching  me  all  night,  until,  getting  uneasy 
or  hungry,  he  began  to  scream." 


84  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Wash  remarked  that  this  was  something  such  an 
adventure  as  we  had  had  while  at  Mt.  Katahdin  two 
years  ago.  He  then  told  Durkee  and  the  Doctor  of  the 
scrimmage  we  had  with  "  Beelly  "  in  old  "  Cluey's  "  log- 
hut.  * 

"  I  make  no  doubt  of  it/7  said  Durkee,  laughing 
heartily.  "  They  are  always  getting  into  old  deserted 
buildings.  Your  yarn  makes  me  think  of  a  scrape  a 
party  of  us  had  with  one  years  ago,  when  I  lived  at 
home. 

"  Uncle  Ezra  from  New  York  had  come  on  to  visit 
us  late  one  fall;  and  nothing  would  do  hut  we  must 
go  on  a  moose-hunt.  These  city  men  are  always  in  for 
a  hunt  of  some  sort.  So  five  of  us  —  Uncle  Ez,  my 
Brother  Dave  and  myself,  a  lately-returned  cavalry 
man,  neighbor  of  ours,  named  Brown  ('twas  in  1866), 
and  'old  Sanders,7  a  backwoodsman,  who,  in  his 
younger  days,  had  been  a  river-driver,  but  latterly  a 
hunter  and  trapper  —  started  off.  We  had  two  hounds, 
and  about  noon  got  on  a  moose-trail,  which  we  followed 
till  near  sunset. 

"But,  during  the  afternoon,  it  had  clouded  up,  and, 
toward  night,  came  on  to  snow. 

" e  Going  to  be  a  regular  north-easter ! 7  said  old 
Sanders.  '  We  may  as  well  get  out  of  this.  7 Twill  be 
colder  than  Biter  by  morning ! ' 

"  '  U-ugh  !  no  doubt/  exclaimed  Uncle  Ezra,  shiver- 
ing. '  But  how  far  is  it  back  to  the  settlement,  for  a 
guess  ? ' 

"  '  Oh !  twenty  m  Ues,  or  thereabout/  replied  Sanders, 
laughing  grimly. 


. 

LYNX-HUNTING.  85 

" '  Twenty  miles  to-night !  Confoun  I  it  I '  cried  Uncle 
Ez,  looking  round  to  the  rest  of  us,  who  were  much 
of  his  opinion,  as  we  stood  there  with  the  snow  sifting 
down  through  the  bare  forest-branches,  and  rattling 
inclemently  on  the  dried  leaves. 

" '  By  George/  cried  Brown,  '  this  is  tougher  than 
any  thing  I  saw  in  the  "service"!  Twenty  miles  in 
such  a  storm  ! ' 

" '  No  use  grumbling ;  you  would  come,  you  know ; 
may  as  well  make  the  best  of  it,'  said  Sanders.  '  But 
we've  got  a  long  tramp  :  so  let's  be  off.' 

"We  were,  we  judged,  somewhere  in  the  town  of 
Grafton,  on  the  head  waters  of  Bear  River,  a  tributary 
of  the  Androscoggin.  The  morning  had  promised  a 
beautiful  Indian-summer  day;  but  winter  had  now 
burst  down  upon  us  with  hail  and  snow,  driven  by  the 
cutting  north-east  wind,  which  sighed  and  howled  with 
November  dreariness  through  the  leaden-colored  forest. 

"  The  moose  had  fared  much  better  than  his  hunters ; 
for,  after  leading  us  off  steadily  into  the  wilderness,  he 
had  now  left  us  to  get  back  the  best  way  we  could  in 
storm  and  darkness. 

"  For  two  or  three  hours  we  tramped  on  steadily,  fol- 
lowing down  the  river,  and  consoling  ourselves  as  best 
we  might  with  the  reflection,  that,  provided  we  didn't 
get  lost,  we  should  get  down  to  some  farmhouse  by  mid- 
night, possibly.  It  was  now  past  six  o'clock,  and  getting 
quite  dark,  when  we  noticed  that  the  forest  lightened 
up  ahead ;  and  a  few  moments  later  we  came  out  into  a 
large  opening  on  the  stream,  containing  a  big  building 
of  some  sort. 


86  LYNX-HUNTING. 

" '  Hurrah ! '  shouted  Uncle  Ezra :  '  there's  a  house  ! ' 

"'Not  a  house  exactly/  said  Brown,  straining  his 
eyes  to  reconnoitre.  '  I  should  call  that  a  barn.' 

" '  Hay-farm  here,  I  guess/  said  Sanders,  i  where  they 
cut  hay  for  the  logging-camps.  No  house  here.7 

" '  No  light,  anyway/  said  Dave. 

" '  Well,  then/  cried  Uncle  Ezra,  striking  out  across 
the  clearing,  e  in  lack  of  a  house,  we'll  try  the  ham.' 

"  We  all  followed.  Any  sort  of  a  shelter  was  a  god- 
send on  such  a  night ;  and  we  were  soon  stumbling 
round  the  corner  of  a  great  deserted  structure  of  rough 
boards,  looming  up  lonesomely  amid  the  whirling  snow, 
with  one  of  its  ' great  doors'  swinging  and  banging 
with  dismal  slams. 

"We  dodged  in,  however,  and  contrived  to  secure  the 
reckless  old  door  by  standing  a  piece  of  timber  slant- 
ingly against  it  on  the  outside.  There  was  a  large 
quantity  of  hay  stored  within.  The  scaffolds  and  mows 
were  filled  up  to  the  '  high  beams  ; '  and  there  was  also 
a  lot  lying  loose  on  the  floor. 

"  It  wouldn't  do  to  kindle  a  fire  in  there ;  and  nobody 
wanted  one  enough  to  build  it  out  in  the  snow :  so  we 
divided  the  remainder  of  our  '  cold  bite '  in  the  dark, 
and,  after  eating  it,  shook  down  a  bed  of  the  hay,  and 
turned  in  side  by  side,  with  a  beautiful  coverlet  of  the 
same  material.  For  a  long  time  we  lay  talking  and 
congratulating  ourselves  in  our  comfortable  bunk ;  till, 
after  a  while,  first  Brown,  then  Uncle  Ez,  and,  soon 
after,  Sanders,  began  snoring  drowsily.  Dave  took  up 
the  chorus ;  and  I  didn't  listen  much  longer. 

"  I  don't  know  how  long  we  had  been  asleep,  when  all 


LYNX-HUNTING.  87 

at  once  I  woke  with  a  jump,  and  in  considerable  alarm. 
Something  was  snuffing  and  scratching  through  the  hay 
down  at  my  feet.  I  was  sure  I  felt  claws  on  my  boot. 
It  took  me  a  moment  to  recollect  where  I  was ;  and  it 
then  flashed  into  my  mind  that  Uncle  Ezra  was  playing 
off  another  of  his  jokes  (lie  was  always  at  it)  to  frighten 
me. 

"The  scratching  and  rustling  continued,  working  up 
nearer ;  but  I  waited  for  a  good  chance.  '  I'll  fix  you, 
old  fellow ! '  thought  I,  and  lay  motionless  till  I  felt 
what  I  took  to  be  his  finger-nails  pinching  up  my 
trousers-leg ;  then  I  kicked  out  at  a  venture,  hoping  to 
pay  him  for  his  untimely  antics. 

"  My  foot  hit  something  —  pretty  hard  !  There  was  a 
spit,  a  growl,  and  a  flash  of  two  fiery  eyes  in  the  black- 
ness. In  my  fright  and  surprise  I  executed  a  rolling  leap 
over  Brown  (who  lay  next  to  me),  and  landed  plump 
on  Uncle  Ez.  He  jumped  up,  pitching  me  down  into 
the  hay  at  his  feet.  As  yet,  none  had  spoken ;  but  the 
following  inquiries  instantly  broke  out  in  the  dark :  — 

"  '  Halloo ! '  from  uncle. 

"  '  What's  up  ?  '  from  Brown. 

" '  Wildcats,  wildcats ! '  screamed  I,  sprawling  in  the 
hay. 

" '  Halloo ! '  from  old  Sanders,  waking  up. 

«  '  What's  the  matter  ?  >  from  Dave. 

" '  Catamounts,  wildcats  ! '  I  vociferated. 

"  There  was  an  instant  scrabble.  Everybody  was  on 
his  feet  in  no  time.  Gusts  of  hay  flew  about. 

"  Knowing  the  creature  was  on  my  side,  I  leaped  over 
toward  the  other,  ran  against  Brown,  was  taken  for  the 


88  LYNX-HUNTING. 

wildcat,  and  got  a  knock  which  sent  rne  sprawling  in 
the  hay  again. 

"  '  Here  he  is  ! '  yelled  Brown,  —  ( here  he  is  !  Out 
with  your  knives  ! ' 

"'Hold  on!  Don't  stab!'  I  shouted.  'You  are 
wrong !  —  all  wrong ! ' 

" '  Strike  a  light,  strike  a  light ! '  cried  Sanders,  with 
'  Open  the  door,  open  the  door ! '  from  Uncle  Ez. 

"  Everybody  ran  toward  the  door  to  push  it  open,  — 
all  together ;  and  actually  ran  square  on  to  the  cat,  which 
had  also  started  for  the  door.  A  tornado  of  spits  and 
snarls  arose :  the  creature  bit  and  dug  away  right  and 
left,  slitting  open  pant-legs,  snapping  its  teeth,  and  trip- 
ping up  nearly  the  whole  party  in  its  struggle  among 
our  legs.  The  hounds  rushed  in  to  complete  the  uproar  j 
while  voices  not  identified  cried  all  at  once,  — 

"'Git  out!7 

"'Ste-boy!' 

«'  Git  out!7 

"'Don't  strike  here!' 

«'  Who  you  kicking?' 

" '  Avast  that  knife ! '  from  Sanders. 

" '  For  God's  sake,  keep  that  gun  off  my  head  ! '  from 
Brown. 

"  All  this,  with  an  instantaneous  rush  for  the  other  end 
of  the  floor:  in  fact,  another  blind  and  unintentional 
run  on  the  already-maddened  animal,  which  had  gone 
there  just  ahead  of  us.  This  time  the  creature  sprang 
at  Uncle  Ezra  full  tilt,  knocking  him  against  somebody 
else.  Another  outrageous  panic  followed.  Everybody 
kicked  and  struggled  at  random  j  and  amid  shouts, 


LYNX-HUNTING.  89 

barks,  growls,  and  spits,  the  beast  got  through  the  crowd 
somehow,  and  escaped  up  the  side  of  the  mow. 

" '  Order,  order ! '  roared  Sanders  above  the  outcry. 
'  Now  just  stand  still,  —  stand  still  everybody,  —  till  we 
get  a  light/ 

"  Matches  were  fumbled  out  and  struck ;  but  they  only 
seemed  to  make  the  darkness  denser ;  till  Sanders  found 
some  pine-splinters  on  the  floor,  which  he  lighted. 
Putting  one  of  these  into  the  muzzle  of  his  rifle,  he 
thrust  it  upward,  disclosing  an  animal  larger  than  the 
hounds,  crouching  on  the  high  beam, 

" '  There  he  is  ! '  cried  Dave. 

" '  Take  your  gun,  Brown ! '  said  Sanders.  '  But  no : 
you  hold  the  torch,  and  let  me  shoot ! ' 

"  Brown  took  the  torch  ;  and  Sanders,  taking  up  a  gun, 
fired.  The  cat  yawled,  and,  bounding  off  sidewise  from 
the  beam,  came  sailing  down  toward  us  with  its  claws 
spread  out.  Brown  jumped  aside  to  get  out  of  the 
way.  The  splint  fell  out  of  the  gun  on  the  floor,  put- 
ting it  out ;  and  down  came  the  wounded  beast,  snap- 
ping and  snarling  in  the  midst  of  us. 

"  Darkness  reigned ;  and  such  a  scrimmage  as  followed 
there  on  the  narrow  floor !  I  remember  jumping  fren- 
ziedly  backward  upon  some  one,  who  pitched  me  head- 
long again,  with  my  face  flat  on  the  creature's  horrible 
fur!  But  it  didn't  move,  and,  I  have  no  doubt,  was 
already  dead. 

"  Meanwhile  somebody  had  struck  out  at  random,  and 
laid  Uncle  Ezra  flat  for  a  moment ;  and  somebody  else 
had  hit  a  dog,  which  was  lamenting  piteously.  But 
order  was  at  last  restored,  and  another  splinter  lighted  ; 


00  LYNX-HUNTING. 

when  the  creature  was  found  to  be  stone-dead  in  the 
hay. 

"  It  was  a  large  specimen  of  what  Sanders  called  a 

1  bob-cat;'  which   is   nothing   more  nor  less  than   the 
Canada  lynx. 

"  It  was  probably  in  the  barn  when  we  went  in ;  having 
gone  in,  like  ourselves,  to  get  shelter  from  the  storm. 
Our  noisy  entrance  had  doubtless  given  it  quite  a 
surprise ;  and,  being  of  an  inquisitive  mind,  it  had  come 
down,  after  all  was  quiet,  to  investigate,  with  the  results 
before  mentioned. 

"  The  fur  was  of  a  beautiful  stone-gray  color,  fading 
into  white  upon  the  under  parts  of  the  body.  The  skin 
was  unanimously  voted  to  Uncle  Ez,  as  he  had  suffered 
most,  to  keep  as  a  memento  of  our  night  in  the  old 
barn  on  Bear  Eiver." 

"  Mr.  Durkee,"  said  the  Doctor,  "  that's  the  worst  cat- 
story  I  ever  heard  —  up  to  this  date.  Let's  go  round 
and  see  how  the  mercury  stands." 

When  they  had  come  back  (which  they  did  in  about 
five  minutes),  Wade  called  for  another  story. 

"  Certainly,"  said  our  genial  friend.  "  One  doesn't 
live  all  his  life  in  a  wooden  country  like  this  without 
meeting  with  plenty  of  cat-adventures;  and  I  assure 
you,  gentlemen,  that  every  one  of  these  tales  stands  for 
an  actual  occurrence." 

"  Certainly,  certainly  ! "  Of  course,  we  never  doubted 
that. 

"  Well,  then,"  continued  Durkee,  "  the  following  inci- 
dent happened  two  years  ago  this  winter.  I  was  then 
at  a  logging-camp  on  the  'Dead  Diamond  Stream.' 


LYNX-HUNTING.  91 

We  had  a  jolly  rough  crew  of  nearly  thirty.  The  camp 
was  a  large  log-shanty,  thirty  foot  square,  with  a  log- 
porch  in  front,  which  was  used,  in  part,  as  a  store-room 
for  the  pork  and  flour.  Through  this  porch  we  all  had 
to  pass  out  and  in  to  the  camp.  It  had  a  rough  slab- 
door,  hung  with  leather  hinges ;  as  was  also  the  camp- 
door.  The  porch  was  supposed  to  keep  the  camp  warm- 
er than  it  would  otherwise  have  been. 

"  One  night,  three  or  four  of  us  had  been  out  till  eight 
or  nine  o'clock,  looking  to  some  marten-traps  we  had  set 
on  a  neighboring  mountain.  As  we  came  up  to  the 
porch,  I  noticed  the  door  was  ajar.  This  was  nothing 
unusual,  however.  We  stepped  in.  The  inside  camp- 
door  was  shut :  all  was  dark  in  the  porch.  As  we  came 
stamping  in  to  go  through,  we  heard  a  great  scratching 
and  scrambling  over  the  barrels.  Thought  at  first  it  was 
the  cook  out  there  after  something,  and  sang  out  to  him. 
At  that,  somebody  opened  the  inside  door ;  when  a  big 
lucivee  sprang  down  from  the  barrels,  and  dived  into  the 
camp  to  get  out  of  our  way.  You  can  guess  what  an 
uproar  that  made  inside :  twenty  men  shut  up  in  there 
with  a  '  bob-cat,'  as  they  called  it.  They  had  one  tal- 
low-candle burning :  somebody  upset  that,  first  thing. 
7Twas  dark  as  poker;  everybody  shouting  and  kick- 
ing and  striking ;  the  cat  wauling  and  jumping  about. 
They  had  a  great  stove,  red-hot;  for  it  was  a  sharp 
night.  The  creature  got  on  to  that,  making  a  horrible 
stench  of  burnt  hair.  There  !  I  never  heard  such  a 
noise.  Several  of  the  men  got  scratched  ;  and  more  than 
a  dozen  got  whacks  from  each  other  —  meant  for  the 
lucivee.  At  last  the  cook  gave  it  a  lick  with  his  axe. 
which  knocked  it  over. 


92  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  We  kept  the  skin  hung  up  in  the  porch  all  the  rest 
of  the  winter,  and  had  many  a  laugh  over  it. 

"  I've  had  a  good  many  scrapes  with  cats,  first  and 
last  j  hut  that  was  ahout  the  most  outrageous  one/'-' 


SIXTH  DAY. 

Visiting  Traps.  —  Re-clogging. — Bait  gone.  —  A  Lynx  Hard  and 
Fast.  —  "  Blessed  are  the  Merciful."  —  How  to  kill  a  Cat  with- 
out hurting  it.  —  Prof.  Tyndall's  Rifle-ball  Theory.  —  We  re- 
solve to  kill  our  Cats  scientifically.  —  A  Lucivee's  Foot  left  in 

a  Trap Down  the  Lake  on  an  Otter-Hunt.  —  Wash  projects  a 

Novel  Method  of  Hunting  the  Animal,  and  catches  a  Ducking.  — 
An  Anecdote  of  the  Otter. 

OUR  visitor,  Durkee,  was  stirring  surprisingly  early 
next  morning:  he  was  in  haste  to  go  on,  I  pre- 
sume. When  I  waked,  he  had  a  blithe  fire  going.  Con- 
siderably to  my  astonishment,  too,  the  Doctor  was  up. 
Whether  they  had  yet  made  an  observation  of  the  ther- 
mometer, I  really  cannot  say ;  but  it  looked  like  it,  I 
thought. 

We  had  breakfast  off  by  sunrise  ;  and  Durkee  imme- 
diately departed  with  a  hearty  "  good-luck "  all  round. 
We  watched  him  tramping  away  across  the  lake,  and 
saw  him  disappear  among  the  alders  on  the  opposite 
shore. 

"There  he  goes  —  for  a  jolly  confrere"  muttered  the 
Doctor.  "  Who  would  have  thought  of  his  turning  up 
here  in  the  wilderness?" 

93 


94  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"Well,  we  ougLt  to  be  looking  to  our  traps,"  Wash 
reminded.  "  They  got  scanty  care  from  us  yesterday." 

Not  to  be  caught  on  another  dilemma  like  that  of  the 
previous  day,  we  packed  a  travelling-bag  with  mince- 
pie  ;  and,  in  lieu  of  the  rifle,  Wash  took  the  axe,  as  likely 
to  be  a  more  serviceable  utensil.  E-aed,  moreover,  car- 
ried the  coffee-pot  slung  to  his  back  after  the  manner 
of  a  knapsack,  with  coffee  enough  for  three  "charges" 
in  his  pocket. 

Directly  after  starting  out  from  camp,  we  had  the 
good  fortune  to  shoot  a  hare,  which  we  espied  "bud- 
ding "  from  a  bush.  Its  small  carcass  came  into  immedi- 
ate requisition  ;  for,  on  coming  out  to  the  place  where  lay 
our  first  two  traps,  we  found  them  both  robbed  of  bait. 
The  traps  themselves  were  unmolested.  Not  a  feather 
with  which  we  had  covered  them  seemed  to  have  been 
stirred.  Shrewd  caution  had  been  used.  I  was  inclined 
to  think  it  might  have  been  a  fox.  Ee-baiting,  we 
chained  to  each  another  clog  of  about  the  same  weight, 
and  went  on  to  the  next,  —  the  one  we  had  covered  with 
trailing  moss  scented  with  assafoetida.  Bait,  trap,  and 
all  were  gone. 

"  Another  twelve  miles'  chase ! "  groaned  Wade. 
"  Well  we  took  the  mince-pie  ! " 

But,  as  it  happened,  we  had  not  far  to  look.  Before 
we  had  gone  a  hundred  yards  along  the  trail,  we  heard 
the  chain  rattle,  and  saw  the  creature  leaping  and  thresh- 
ing about  amid  a  clump  of  little  basswoods. 

"  The  clog  has  caught ! "  shouted  Wash. 

It  was  a  lynx.  As  we  came  up,  it  burst  out  yawling 
hideously,  and  bounded  to  and  fro  in  the  most  frantic 


LYNX-HUNTING.  95 

manner.  But  the  clog,  which  was  caught  at  both  ends 
against  the  bass-trunks,  held  fast.  Finding  escape 
hopeless,  it  turned,  crouched,  and  growled  menacingly. 
Its  ears  lay  back  ;  its  eyes  flashed  and  glowed.  A  very 
picture  of  fury  it  seemed. 

"  Hold  on  !  "  said  E-aed.  "  Let's  not  get  too  near. 
He  means  business.  If  he  should  jump  this  way,  the 
clog  might  not  hold." 

It  had  one  hind-foot  in  the  trap.  We  prudently 
halted  at  a  distance  of  twenty  yards ;  then  gradually 
moved  up  to  within  a  couple  of  rods.  The  creature 
eyed  us  scratchingly,  and  kept  up  a  continuous  miawl- 
ing,  —  something  like  a  house-cat  when  cornered  up  in  a 
room  and  frightened. 

"  I  wish  we  had  the  rifle  ! "  said  Eaed.  "  If  we 
fire  at  it  with  shot,  it  will  be  sure  to  spring.  Besides, 
the  shot  will  cut  up  the  fur." 

"  Too  bad  to  mangle  the  poor  brute ! "  Wade  re- 
marked. 

Pity,  I  fear,  had  come  into  none  of  our  hearts  but 
his.  Our  only  thought  had  been  to  despatch  it  some- 
how or  anyhow. 

"  Wade,"  said  the  Doctor  approvingly,  " '  blessed  are 
the  merciful.'  You  ought  at  once  to  be  made  a  life- 
member  of  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
our  Dumb  Animals." 

Wade  blushingly  disclaimed  any  extra  soft-hearted- 
ness  on  his  part.  The  Doctor's  chaff  rather  demoralized 
him.  "But,"  said  he,  rallying  a  little,  "  I  don't  see  any 
good  in  torturing  the  poor  creatures.  It's  bad  enough 
to  come  up  here  and  kill  them,  —  for  sport,  —  without 
mangling  and  excruciating  them  needlessly." 


96  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  Shows  his  good,  kind  heart !  "  cried  the  Doctor,  rub- 
bing his  hands. 

"  Of  course  he  does  !  "  said  Wash,  who,  for  some  rea- 
son, is  less  afraid  of  the  Doctor's  raillery  than  any  of 
the  other  boys.  "It's  quite  an  item  to  have  a  kind 
heart  to  show,  I  think." 

"Something  of  a  problem  to  kill  the  beast  without 
hurting  him  any,"  laughed  Raed. 

"  Why,  didn't  ever  you  read  that  essay  by  Tyndall, 
on  ' Death  by  Lightning ' ?"  exclaimed  Wade.  "The 
professor  claims,  that,  in  case  of  death  by  lightning- 
stroke,  there  is  no  suffering,  no  pain;  the  point  as- 
sumed being,  that  the  rapidity  of  the  shock  destroys  the 
power  of  sensation  before  the  sensory  nerves  have  time 
to  translate  the  sense  of  injury." 

"But  we  should  find  it  rather  difficult  to  get  up  a 
thunder-storm  every  time  we  want  to  kill  a  cat "  objected 
the  Doctor. 

"  Yes ;  but  the  professor  claims,  also,  that  a  rifle-ball 
through  the  brain  has  much  the  same  effect/-'  continued 
Wade.  "  The  passage  of  the  bullet,  he  assures  us,  is 
much  more  rapid  than  nerve  motion.  In  illustration  of 
the  position  that  death  by  lightning  is  painless,  he  cites 
his  own  experience  on  an  evening  when  he  accidentally 
received  a  shock  from  a  battery.  For  a  moment  he 
knew  nothing,  sensed  nothing ;  and  he  was  convinced, 
that,  had  the  shock  been  heavy  enough  to  kill  him,  he 
would  never  have  felt  it." 

"Then,  according  to  Tyndall's  rifle-ball  theory,  a  mil- 
itary execution  might  be  quite  painless,"  remarked 
Wash,  "provided  the  firiug-party  aimed  at  the  head." 


LYNX-HUNTING.  97 

It  seemed  so,  if  we  understood  the  professor's  argu- 
ment. 

"  Then,  in  the  name  of  God  and  humanity,  why  not 
in  that  way  execute  all  criminals  condemned  to  death," 
exclaimed  Raed,  "instead  of  our  barbarous,  revenge- 
ful, and  revolting  mode  of  hanging  by  the  neck, 
leaving  the  victim  to  struggle  and  writhe  twenty  min- 
utes, as  is  often  the  case  ?  Twenty  minutes  !  which,  to 
a  poor  wretch  thus  tortured,  must  seem  twenty  hours,  — 
ay,  twenty  ages  ! " 

"  Take  care,  take  care !  "  cried  the  Doctor.  "  Don't 
amplify  so.  You'll  make  the  cat  jump." 

"Well,  I  move,  that,  hereafter,  we  kill  our  cats  sct- 
entificaUy"  said  I. 

"  Which  means  humanely,"  amended  Eaed. 

"  But  who's  philanthropist  enough  to  go  back  to  camp 
after  the  rifle  ?  "  Wash  demanded. 

But  I  had  a  few  bullets  with  me,  and  thought  we 
might  compromise  the  matter  by  drawing  the  load  from 
one  of  the  barrels  of  the  shot-gun,  and  substituting  a 
ball.  This  was  done. 

"  Now,  who's  going  to  undertake  this  office  of  love  ?  " 
inquired  the  Doctor. 

It  rather  seemed  to  devolve  upon  Wade.  I  handed 
him  the  gun.  He  took  a  step  forward,  and  cocked  it. 

"  Get  good  aim  now,"  advised  Wash ;  "  else  it  will 
hardly  be  an  act  of  mercy  for  him  —  or  the  rest  of  us." 

Wade  fired ;  and  the  animal  tumbled  over  with 
scarcely  a  kick.  'Twas  a  beautiful  shot,  very  happily 
illustrating  both  young  Additon's  marksmanship  and 
the  professor's  theory. 


98  LYNX-HUNTING. 

This  was  our  third  cat.  We  skinned  it,  reset  the 
trap,  and  went  on  to  the  other  two  set  among  the  fox- 
bones.  We  found  them  both  sprung  as  before.  Curi- 
ously enough,  one  of  them  had  a  hare  in  it,  —  caught 
round  the  neck,  and  fairly  choked  to  death.  The  poor 
little  fellow  could  hardly  have  been  attracted  by  the  bait. 
The  other  trap  had  been  dragged  to  a  little  distance,  and 
lay  much  as  we  had  found  it  two  mornings  previously,  — 
with  a  foot  in  it ;  only  this  time,  instead  of  a  black  foot, 
it  was  a  gray  foot,  —  a  lucivee's  foot !  This  time  it  was 
a  lynx  that  had  got  into  the  trap ;  and  sometJiing  had, 
in  turn,  eaten  it  up.  Its  bones  lay  scattered  about, 
with  wet  bits  and  wads  of  its  fine  long  fur  chewed  up 
and  spit  out. 

We  stood  looking  over  the  scene  of  the  massacre. 

"  What  think  now  ?  "  demanded  Wash  meaningly. 

Nobody  knew  exactly  what  to  think. 

"  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  these  i  bob-cats 7  are  canni- 
bals ?  "  persisted  Wash.  "  If  one  of  their  number  gets 
into  a  trap,  is  it  likely  that  the  rest  will  fall  to  and  eat 
him  up?" 

"  Why  not  ?  "  said  Eaed.     "  Wolves  often  do  so." 

"It's  not  a  supposable  case ! "  exclaimed  Wash  with 
some  heat.  "  This  is  a  panther's  work  ! " 

Something  had,  clearly,  devoured  the  lynx  ;  but  I,  for 
one,  was  hardly  prepared  to  believe  it  the  "  work  "  of  a 
catamount.  Not  often,  within  the  last  five  years,  has  the 
Felis  concolor  been  met  with  in  Maine.  But  very  few 
of  our  oldest  hunters  have  ever  seen  it.  Indeed,  I  know 
of  but  three  authentic  accounts  of  adventure  with  this 
beast  occurring  within  this  State.  Of  these  a  brief 
sketch  will  presently  follow. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  99 

We  set  the  two  traps  again,  using  for  bait  the  assa- 
fbetidaed  carcass  of  the  unfortunate  little  hare. 

The  trap  in  the  trail  leading  up  to  the  mountain  was 
as  we  had  left  it.  We  took  it  up,  and  went  back  to 
c&mp  and  to  dinner. 

In  the  afternoon  we  took  our  two  traps  (the  one  we 
had  brought  back  from  our  long  tramp,  and  the  one  we 
had  just  taken  up),  and  went  down  the  pond,  past  the 
"hole"  where  we  had  fished,  and  came  round  to  the  hum- 
mock and  the  old  pine-stump  where  we  had  seen  the 
singular  black  animal  watching  us.  The  sharp  cold  of 
the  previous  evening  had  closed  up  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  open  stretch  along  the  bog.  That  it  should  remain 
open  a  day  even,  at  this  season,  was  a  curiosity. 

Going  along  the  shore  of  the  hummock,  we  saw  that 
the  bank  shelved  off  abruptly  into  tolerably  deep  water ; 
and  in  one  place  it  was  worn  smooth,  and  was  icy,  as  if 
some  animal  had  been  sliding  from  it  down  into  the 
pond.  Otherwise  there  were  no  traces.  But,  seeing  this, 
I  at  once  took  the  hint. 

We  then  climbed  up  to  the  stump  where  we  had  seen 
the  creature  sitting.  All  about  it,  the  snow  was  trodden 
hard.  The  heart  of  the  stump  had  rotted  away,  leaving 
a  dark  hole  down  into  the  ground.  Wade  and  I  were 
a  little  ahead ;  and,  looking  into  it,  we  espied  a  broad 
black  muzzle,  and  a  pair  of  wicked  little  eyes  gleaming 
up  at  us. 

"  Halloo  !  "  cried  Wade :  "here  he  is !  "  thrusting  in 
the  barrel  of  the  rifle.  The  head  vanished. 

"What  was  it?  What  did  it  look  like,  anyway?" 
exclaimed  War h. 


100  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  Had  mouse-ears,  little  sparkling  eyes,  and  a  mighty 
blunt  nose,"  Wade  explained. 

Even  the  sagacious  Doctor  looked  puzzled. 

But  I  thought  it  was  an  otter,  judging  from  the 
ft  slide  "  on  the  bank,  and  the  momentary  glimpse  I  had 
got  of  its  head.  It  was  just  about  such  a  place,  too,  as 
the  otter  would  naturally  select  for  its  winter-quarters,  — 
a  place  where  there  was  open  water,  and  plenty  of  fish.* 

"  Otters !  — what  about  them  ?  "  inquired  the  Doctor. 
"  Will  they  fight  much  ?  » 

"  Fight  when  cornered ;  so  I  read,"  Wash  explained. 
"  Dogs  are  no  match  for  them.  But  their  fur  is  valua- 
ble." 

"That  so?"  demanded  Kaed.  "We  must  get  this 
one,  then,  if  we  can.  What  are  they  worth  apiece  ?  — 
their  skins,  I  mean  ?  " 

Wash  had  heard  that  a  good  otter-skin  was  worth 
from  twelve  to  fifteen  dollars. 

"  Must  get  him  by  all  means !  "  exclaimed  the  Doctor. 
"Why,  that's  equal  to  a  first-class  fee/  " 

I  suggested  that  there  might,  perhaps,  be  more  than 
one.  Two,  three,  and  even  four  otters  are  sometimes 
found  together  in  these  winter  burrows. 

"  But  I  see  no  track  from  the  stump  here  down  to  the 
water,"  Wash  remarked.  "  That's  strange  !  Not  a  sign 
of  a  trail !  Of  course  they  are  in  connection  with  the 
water :  else  how  do  they  live  ?  " 

I  suggested  that  there  might  possibly  be  a  passage 
under  ground ;  but,  as  the  distance  from  the  stump  to 
the  water  was  all  of  four  rods,  E-aed  thought  this  hardly 

*  See  Field  Notes. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  101 

probable.  Yet,  under  these  old  pine-stumps,  curiously 
roomy  cavities  will  sometimes  be  found.  We  went  down 
to  reconnoitre  the  bank.  It  fell  off  steeply  into  six  or 
seven  feet  of  water ;  and,  a  little  to  one  side  of  the 
"slide/'  there  was  the  appearance  of  an  opening  three  or 
four  feet  under  water. 

Wade  was  standing  up  near  the  stump. 

"  Stamp  on  the  ground,"  E/aed  called  out  to  him,  "  or 
beat  down  with  the  axe  !  " 

Wade  beat  on  the  stump  violently.  We  stood  looking 
over  into  the  water,  and,  a  moment  later,  saw  a  long, 
slim  animal  glide  out  from  under  the  bank,  and  dart  off 
beneath  the  ice  ;  then  another. 

"  Two  of  them  !  "  Wash  shouted. 

"Watch  and  see  where  they  come  up,"  admonished 
Eaed.  "  Have  the  rifle  ready." 

We  continued  intently  observant  for  nearly  five  min- 
utes ;  but  they  did  not  come  up  in  the  open  water.  We 
presumed  there  might  be  air-holes  in  the  ice. 

"Well,  shall  we  set  the  traps  for  ?em?"  quoth  the 
Doctor. 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  Raed ;  "  but  we  rather  ought  to 
bag  at  least  one  of  them  to-day  —  now." 

"Might  watch  here  at  the  stump,  and  shoot  when 
one  shows  his  head,"  Wade  suggested. 

"But,  even  if  you  hit  the  animal,  he  would  draw 
back  into  the  hole,  out  of  reach,"  objected  the  more  prac- 
tical Wash. 

"  Well,  then,  stand  on  the  bank,  and  shoot  when  they 
pass  out,"  said  Wade. 

"Be    pretty  sure    to    get  off,    even   then,  into  deep 


102  LYNX-HUNTING. 

water  under  the  ice,"  Wash  observed;  "and  then  I 
doubt  whether  the  bullet  would  take  effect  through 
three  feet  of  water.  No,  fellows :  I've  g6t  the  better 
plan." 

"  Let's  hear  it ! "  cried  the  Doctor. 

"  Well,  then,  I  propose  to  cut  a  crotched  pole  about  a 
dozen  feet  long,  with  prongs  some  foot  or  eighteen  inches 
in  length,  after  the  fashion  of  a  pitchfork,  having  the 
prongs  sharpened.  With  this  in  hand,  I'll  stand  on  the 
bank  here,  holding  it  ready  to  prod.  Then,  when  one 
of  them  scoots  out,  I'll  pin  him,  and  hold  him  fast." 

"If  you  can,"  supplemented  Raed,  laughing. 

"  Oh,  I  can  hold  him  fast  enough  !  *  exclaimed  Wash. 
"  Once  I  get  those  prongs  over  his  back,  I  can  bear 
down  hard  enough  to  hold  him,  I'll  warrant  ye  ! " 

It  seemed  a  rather  good  idea,  —  a  very  original  one 
certainly. 

A  yellow-birch  sapling  of  the  crotched  sort  was  cut, 
trimmed  up,  and  the  prongs  sharpened  off  to  Wash's 
liking. 

But  the  others  were  still  out  in  the  lake.  It  was  not 
probable,  however,  that  they  would  relish  staying  out 
there  in  the  icy  water  any  longer  than  they  were  obliged 
to.  So,  in  order  to  give  them  opportunity  to  get  baek 
into  their  burrow,  we  went  off,  and  around  upon  the  iee 
again.  Raed  and  the  Doctor  sought  to  frighten  them 
back  by  shouting,  and  stamping  on  the  snow.  Wade 
even  went  so  far  as  to  clear  out  the  hole  where  we  had 
fished  a  few  days  previous,  and  splash  and  shout  in  it 

"  Guess  they've  gone  in,  if  they  are  going,"  remarked 
Wash  after  we  had  been  beating  about  on  the  iee  foi 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  103 

We  went  ashore,  and  came  cautiously  along  the  bank. 
Wash  took  his  forked  pole,  and  placed  himself  in  a  posi- 
tion to  jab  with  it.  Wade  had  gone  directly  up  to  the 
gtump. 

"  Ha !  here  they  are  ! "  he  muttered.  "  Got  another 
glimpse ! " 

"  Are  you  all  ready,  Wash  ?  "  demanded  Eaed. 

"  All  ready !  "  responded  the  expectant  sportsman. 

We  beat  on  the  stump,  and  stamped  the  snow  with 
our  rackets.  A  faint  rumble  sounded  from  beneath. 
Wash  jailed.  He  had  to  lean  off  on  the  bank  pretty 
well,  and  threw  his  whole  weight  upon  the  pole.  There 
was  an  instant's  struggle  and  spattering,  when  Wash 
disappeared  over  the  bank.  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  his 
racketed  heels.  Then  came  a  splash  and  a  suppressed 
shout.  We  ran  down.  He  was  fighting  the  water 
with  both  hands;  but  his  feet  didn't  seem  to  be  of 
much  service  to  him.  "  Catch  hold  -hands !"  exclaimed 
Raed,  planting  his  feet  firmly  on  the  bank.  Wade  and 
the  Doctor  strung  out  behind  him  with  a  firm  hand- 
grip ;  and,  slipping  my  feet  out  of  the  racket-straps,  I 
swung  down  the  bank,  and,  reaching  out,  managed  to 
grab  hold  of  the  tail  of  one  of  Wash's  snow-shoes.  He 
was  in  this  way  drawn  ashore,  and  pulled  up  the  bank, 
puffing  and  blowing  in  a  lively  manner,  wet  to  the 
skin  in  ice-water,  with  the  thermometer  at  seven  degrees 
above  only  !  No  joke  for  him ;  though  we  could  but  grin, 
once  he  was  safely  out. 

"Couldn't  ye  hold  him,  Wash?"  demanded  Wade, 
with  a  wink  to  the  rest  of  us. 

"  Wiggled  prodigiously,  didn't  he  ?  "  suggested  Eaed. 


104  LYNX-HUNTING. 

But  Wash's  teeth  had  begun  to  chatter  alarmingly. 

"Must  be  got  to  a  fire  and  into  dry  togs  immedi- 
ately," pronounced  the  Doctor.  "  Come,  sir,  you  must 
run  back  to  camp  with  me.  We'll  try  a  race."  Wade 
pulled  off  his  overcoat,  and  wrapped  it  about  the 
shiverer.  Baed  and  I  attended  to  his  rackets. 

But,  despite  his  ducking,  Wash's  thoughts  were  still 
on  the  game. 

"  2?el-fe-&-fel-ows,"  he  chattered,  "  o-o-o-o-nly-one-of 
e-e-e-em-ca-ca-ca-cameout.  The-oth-oth-other-t-t-t-two- 
'reinthereyet." 

"Two  more!"  said  I. 

"Ye-ye-yes,  a-coup-coup-couple  mo-more.  Setout-to- 
comeout,  b-b-butdartedback.  C-c-c-catch'em  ! " 

"  Well,  well,  come  along  with  you  ! "  cried  the  Doctor, 
marching  him  off  authoritatively. 

"  Three  of  them,  then,"  said  Wade.  "  Is  it  best  for 
us  to  try  Wash's  crotched  pole  ?  "  Baed  declared  that 
he  had  seen  all  of  it  that  he  cared  to  see.  But  I  still 
had  faith  in  it ;  and  Wade  thought  he  should  like  to 
have  a  hand  in  it :  so  we  two  agreed  to  hold  the  pole 
while  E-aed  beat  on  the  stump.  But  first  we  took  the 
precaution  to  take  off  our  rackets.  Then,  getting  the 
prongs  poised  astride  the  hole,  Wade  gave  the  signal. 
E-aed  beat  and  shooed  savagely.  In  a  moment,  there 
came  a  wavy  motion  of  the  water  deep  down ;  and  an 
otter  came  swimming  swiftly  out  beneath  the  prongs. 
I  jabbed.  We  both  threw  our  weight  on  it.  We  had 
pinned  him  right  back  of  the  shoulders.  The  animal 
struggled  violently.  I  could  easily  imagine  how  Wash 
had  been  upset.  But  our  united  weight  proved  too  much 


LYNX-HUNTING.  105 

for  its  strength.  It  couldn't  wriggle  out;  though  it 
squirmed  and  doubled  franticly  for  fully  five  minutes, 
till  it  fairly  drowned :  for  an  otter  must  breathe,  as  well 
as  any  other  quadruped ;  though  it  will  remain  under 
water  somewhat  over  a  minute  ;  some  hunters  say  three 
minutes.  Not  until  it  had  long  ceased  to  twist  did  we 
venture  to  take  up  the  pole.  It  then  lay  still  on  the 
bottom.  Indeed,  the  carcass  of  an  otter  always  sinks. 
We  fished  it  out. 

In  the  struggle  the  other  had  escaped  past  us,  and 
dived  off  into  the  deep,  dark  water  under  the  ice.  But, 
hoping  to  secure  one  or  both  of  them,  we  set  the  two 
traps,  —  one  in  the  old  stump,  chaining  it  fast ;  and  the 
other  in  the  water,  at  the  mouth  of  the  burrow  leading 
out  into  the  lake.  The  latter  we  made  fast  by  the  ring 
of  the  chain  over  a  stake  driven  with  considerable  diffi- 
culty into  the  loose,  frozen  soil  of  the  bank. 

This  done,  we  started  for  camp,  carrying  the  otter. 
It  gave  us  a  load.  When  we  started,  Wade  had  set  its 
weight  at  forty-five  pounds ;  but,  before  we  got  in  with 
it,  he  was  confident  it  wouldn't  fall  an  ounce  short  of 
seventy. 

We  found  Wash  inside  of  his  spare  shirt,  with  his 
legs  wrapped  up  in  blankets.  The  Doctor  was  dosing 
him  with  hot,  strong  black  tea,  in  lack  of  other  restora- 
tives. His  coat,  pants,  &c.,  were  steaming  before  the 
fire.  When  he  saw  us  bringing  in  the  otter,  he  seemed 
hardly  to  know  whether  to  exult  in  the  final  success  of 
his  project,  or  feel  chagrined  at  his  own  failure  to  exe- 
cute it.  His  dubious  countenance  set  us  all  a-laughing 
afresh.  The  affair  got  hold  of  my  own  risibilities  all 


106  LYNX-HUNTING. 

the  more  from  the  fact  that  I  now  never  look  at  ac 
otter,  not  even  the  picture  of  one,  without  thinking  of 
the  luckless  way  in  which,  in  company  with  several 
other  little  fellows,  I  made  my  first  acquaintance  with 
one  of  these  animals  one  sunny  sabhath  morning  in 
boyhood.  Once  well  a-laughing,  it  is  not  so  easy  hush- 
ing up.  Wash  waxed  so  indignant  under  the  prolonged 
cachinnation,  that,  to  appease  him,  I  at  length  had  to 
explain;  and  so  told  the  story  to  the  party  while  we 
were  getting  supper. 

"  ?Twas  years  ago.  Three  of  us  little  shavers  were 
on  our  way  to  church,  or  '  goin7  to  meeting  as  we  called 
it.  The  meeting-house  was  not  within  '  a  stone's-throw,7 
by  any  means :  it  was  nearly  five  miles  distant  from 
our  little  neighborhood. 

"  The  parish,  or  rather  '  circuit '  (in  Methodist  phrase), 
had  a  vast  territorial  area ;  something  like  a  hundred 
square  miles,  I  believe.  We  considered  ourselves  com- 
paratively near  the  church :  still  it  was  quite  a  walk 
for  boys  of  nine  and  ten.  But  we  couldn't  all  ride ;  and, 
as  grandfather  made  it  a  point  to  have  the  whole  family 
go  to  meeting,  we  little  fellows  were  fixed  up  and  sent 
on  ahead,  under  strict  orders  not  to  play,  —  first,  because 
it  would  be  wicked ;  second,  because  we  should  soil  our 
clothes.  Usually  this  command  was  pretty  well  obejred. 

"  On  the  morning  in  question  we  were  going  along 
with  the  very  best  intentions,  no  doubt,  and  had  accom- 
plished nearly  three  miles,  when,  just  as  we  were  cross- 
ing the  log-bridge  over  the  '  sawmill  brook/  little  Billy 
Murch  saw  some  kind  of  an  animal  whisk  under  a  pile 
of  boards  near  the  road. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  107 

"  ( Oh,  see  that  woodchuck  ! ' 

"<  Where?  where?' 

"  '  Gone  under  them  boards  ! ' 

"  '  We  can  git  'im  !  we  can  git  'im  ! '  cried  Tom  Ed- 
wards. 

"You  see  how  it  was.  The  excitement  of  seeing  the 
animal  had  taken  us  off  our  guard.  The  temptation 
was  too  sudden  for  us.  We  ran  to  the  board-pile ;  and 
that  was  the  last  thought  of  Sunday  we  had  for  the 
time. 

"  <  Git  a  pole  ! '  cried  Tom. 

"  I  ran  to  bring  a  dead  alder-stick  lying  in  the  ditch. 

"  '  That's  it !  There,  you  stand  on  this  side  ! '  ex- 
claimed Tom.  ( Take  stones  !  I'll  punch  'im  out :  you 
knock  'im ! ' 

"  Woodchucks  are  always  deemed  fair  game  in  farming 
neighborhoods.  Boys  and  dogs  assail  them  at  sight. 
True  to  our  traditions,  we  intended  to  give  no  quarter. 

"  Tom  prodded  with  the  pole.  Billy  and  I  stood  ready 
to  strike  the  poor  little  creature's  head  as  soon  as  he 
should  show  it.  But  we  had  more  than  we  bargained 
for  this  time.  Tom  couldn't  seem  to  drive  him  out. 

"  '  Keeps  bitin'  at  the  pole  ;  'most  pulls  it  out  o'  my 
hands/  said  he.  '  It's  an  awful  big  one  !  See'f  ye  can 
see  'im.' 

"  Billy  and  I  peeped  under  on  our  side.  It  was  rather 
dark  beneath  the  pile,  on  account  of  the  grass  and  weeds 
growing  on  both  sides ;  but  I  could  see  a  yellowish,  hairy 
back,  not  far  under.  So,  dropping  into  a  sitting  position 
on  one  leg,  I  began  to  kick  at  it. 

"  For  the  first  kick  or  two,  my  foot  struck,  unresisted, 


108  LYNX-HUNTING. 

into  soft-feeling  fur :  but,  at  the  third  kick,  there  was 
a  sudden  movement,  a  growling  sound;  and,  with  a 
smart  snap,  my  toe  was  pinned. 

"I  tried  to  jump  back,  and  struggled  to  pull  out  my 
leg.  The  creature  held  me  fast.  I  could  hear  and  feel 
its  teeth  gritting  through  the  toe  of  my  shoe.  Scared 
at  this,  I  roared  out  lustily,  — 

" '  Oh,  oh,  oh !  he's  got  me !  Pull  me  out !  pull 
me  out ! ' 

"  Tom  rushed  at  me.  Billy  and  he  lay  hold  of  my 
arms,  and  tugged  to  drag  me  away.  The  animal  held 
on.  How  I  should  have  fared  I  really  don't  know,  had 
not  my  shoe-string  given  way.  My  foot  came  out ;  and 
we  all  three  sprawled  backwards,  leaving  the  shoe  in 
the  creature's  mouth,  under  the  boards. 

"  My  Sunday  shoe  ! 

" ( Oh,  dear ! '  I  cried,  frightened  at  the  sight  of  my 
bare  stocking  :  '  it's  Sunday  ! ? 

"Tom  and  Billy  looked  on  in  sympathetic  distress; 
and  just  then,  to  add  to  our  discomfiture,  the  wagons 
came  rattling  down  the  hill  above  the  brook. 

"  <  Oh  ! '  exclaimed  Billy.     '  What'll  they  say  ?  ' 

" '  Yes ! '  cried  Tom  :   '  what  will  they  say  ?  ' 

"  In  a  sudden  panic,  —  not  an  unaccountable  one, 
either,  —  we  slunk  down  behind  the  board-pile ;  and 
in  a  moment  the  wagons  went  tearing  by,  and  rumbled 
over  the  log-bridge.  We  lay  still  till  they  were  out  of 
sight  among  the  alders. 

"  '  We  must  git  it  away  from  'im,?  said  Tom.  '  Git 
stakes  out  o'  the  fence  there.  We'll  podge  'im.7 

"  We  got  stakes,  and  began  to  poke  the  supposed  wood- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  109 

chuck  011  both  sides  with  great  energy.  He  retaliated 
in  kind  by  snapping  and  champing  the  ends  of  our 
sticks,  making  a  harsh,  snuffling,  and  growling  sound. 

"  Twenty-five  or  thirty  minutes  of  this  sort  of  work 
put  us  into  rather  bad  plight  for  church.  We  kept  at 
it,  however.  There  was  no  other  way  but  to  worry  him 
to  death,  and  so  get  the  shoe. 

"  Suddenly  a  voice  exclaimed,  — 

" '  There  they  are  now  ! ' 

"  We  looked  hastily  up. 

"  <  There  were  Mr.  Edwards  and  grandfather  crossing 
the  bridge.  Not  finding  us  at  the  church,  they  had 
come  back  to  search  for  us. 

"In  a  country  still,  for  the  most  part,  covered  with 
forest,  and  infested  with  bears  and  lynxes,  our  non- 
appearance  demanded  immediate  search. 

" '  Thomas/  said  Mr.  Edwards,  '  what  are  you  doing 
there  ? ' 

" '  There's  a  woodchuck  under  here/  explained  the 
recusant  Thomas  ;  '  an'  he's  got  Kit's  shoe.' 

"At  the  word  l  woodchuck,'  grandfather  began  to  break 
an  alder-stick.  I  stood  and  watched  him  break  off  the 
twigs,  knowing  very  well  what  was  coming.  And  it 
came  ! 

"  The  old  gentleman  took  me  by  the  shoulder,  and  gave 
me  three  cuts.  They  didn't  hurt  my  skin  much ;  but 
they  hurt  my  feelings  dreadfully. 

"Tom,  meanwhile,  was  getting  his  dose  of  correction 
in  the  form  of  an  old-fashioned  spanking.  Billy,  being 
of  a  different  brood,  escaped. 

"'Now  step  yourselves  to  meeting/  said  Mr.  Ed- 
wards. 


110  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"Grandfather  essayed  to  walk  me  along  by  the  shoul- 
der ;  but,  with  only  one  shoe,  my  limp  was  at  once  ap- 
parent. 

"  '  Where's  your  other  shoe,  sir  ? ' 

" l  It's  —  it's  —  it's  under  the  boards.  The  wood  — - 
woodchuck's  got  it.' 

"  Grandfather  went  back,  and  looked  under. 

"  '  See  here,  Edwards  ! '  he  called. 

"Mr.  Edwards  went  back,  and  looked.  Then  they 
laughed. 

"  '  I  should  say  woodcJtuck ! 9  exclaimed  Edwards, 
picking  up  one  of  our  stakes.  Grandfather  lifted  up 
the  boards.  Instantly  a  large,  yellow-brown  animal 
bobbed  out,  but  was  struck  down  by  the  stake. 

"  They  examined  it  a  moment ;  then  threw  the  carcass 
upon  the  pile  of  boards.  Grandfather  now  drew  out 
my  shoe.  But,  alas!  it  was  so  slit  and  chewed  up,  it 
wouldn't  stay  on  my  foot. 

"  e  Carry  it  in  your  hand,'  said  grandfather.  '  Take 
off  your  stocking  too.  There,  come  along  now.  Next 
time,  you  let  such  woodchucks  alone.' 

"  We  were  marched  on  to  church.  Services  had  com- 
menced before  we  got  there.  Nobody  knows  what  I 
suffered  going  in  with  one  shoe,  and  my  hair  so  tum- 
bled up.  Everybody  would  look.  Oh,  what  a  disgraced 
little  chap  I  felt  myself! 

"  That  was  a  day  long  to  be  winced  at. 

"  All  the  little  girls  made  it  a  point  to  come  along  at 
noon,  and  peep  over  the  pew-door  at  my  bare  foot.  The 
Btory  had  somehow  got  out. 

"  '  That's  the  little  woodchuck-boy/  they  kept  saying. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  Ill 

"  '  Did  lie  bite  yer  toe,  bubby  ?  ' 

"Ah,  well !  it  came  to  an  end  at  last.  In  view  of  my 
shoeless  condition,  I  was  allowed  to  ride  home,  sitting 
in  the  back  of  the  wagon,  where  my  bare  foot  still 
further  contrasted  with  my  shod  one. 

"  At  the  board-pile  grandfather  stopped,  and  put  the 
otter  into  the  wagon  with  me  behind :  so  I  rode  home 
with  my  late  enemy." 


SEVENTH  DAY  (SUNDAY). 

M  No  Cat-Hunting  on  the  Lord's  Day."  —  A  Bible  wanted.  —  Some 
Appropriate  Advice  from  the  Doctor  ;  also  his  Opinion  of  Dick- 
ens and  Charles  Reade.  —  "  Foul  Play."  —  A  Fisher  and 
Hare.  —  Anecdote  of  a  Fisher  and  Heron. — Another  Otter. — 
The  Otter  and  the  Woodchucks.  —  Some  Strange  Noises  from 
the  Lake. 

DURING  the  night,  the  weather  moderated.  In  the 
morning,  the  woods  across  the  lake  had  that  dull, 
wet  look  peculiar  to  March  or  the  latter  part  of  Feb- 
ruary. Said  Wash,  "  We're  going  to  have  a  '  Giner- 
wery  thaw,7  I  guess." 

We  were  late  up.  It  was  Sunday,  according  to  a 
rather  dreamy  calculation  I  made  while  but  yet  half 
awake.  Presently  the  Doctor  crawled  out,  yawned,  and 
confirmed  my  suspicion.  "Boys,"  said  he,  " to-day's 
Sunday.  No  cat-hunting  on  the  Lord's  Day.  Has 
anybody  got  a  Bible  ?  Got  a  Bible,  Mr.  Eaedway  ?  " 

"  By  golly,  Doctor,  you've  got  me  this  time !  " 

"  Humph  !  "  with  severity  written  in  every  wrinkle  of 
his  visage.  "  Got  a  Bible,  Mr.  Burleigh  ?  " 

"  I'm  sorry,  Doctor  "  — 

"  The  deuse  you  are !     You're  but  a  sorry  dog,  to 

112 


LYNX-HUNTING.  113 

make  the  best  of  you.  No  Bible ! "  (with  derisive  em- 
phasis.) "  Got  a  Bible,  Mr.  Additon  ?  " 

"  Really,  Doctor,  I  regret  to  say  that  "  — 

The  Doctor  wouldn't  hear  another  word  from  him,  but, 
turning  abruptly,  exclaimed,  "  Well,  have  you  got  a 
Bible,  Christopher?" 

It  was  something  worse  than  humiliating  to  own  up 
that  I  hadn't  even  a  New  Testament. 

"  Well,  I'll  be  blowed !  "  the  Doctor  groaned.  «  What 
the  (unmentionable)  were  you  all  thinking  of!  Up 
here  in  the  very  heart  of  the  wilderness,  and  no  Bible ! 
What  if  an  accident  should  happen,  - —  a  fatal  accident ! 
What  if  one  of  these  cats  should  get  a  grab  at  some  of 
your  reckless  young  throats  !  How  would  you  manage 
it  ?  Then,  I  guess,  you'd  wish  you  had  a  Bible  !  Why, 
I'm  astonished  !  " 

"  But,  Doctor,"  remonstrated  Eaed,  "  why  didn't  you 
bring  one  yourself  ?  " 

"  For  the  very  reason  you  all  vaguely  hint  at  when  you 
address  me,  —  in  a  word,  my  unfortunate  profession," 
explained  our  grim  reprover.  "  It  don't  do  for  a  doctor 
to  sport  a  Bible.  Physic  and  Scripture  don't  go  well 
together.  Somehow  or  other,  the  public  want  the  line 
between  medicine  and  theology  clearly  drawn.  Folks 
won't  have  'em  mixed.  They  hire  a  doctor  to  tinker 
their  bodies ;  but  they  won't  hear  to  having  their  souls 
tinkered  by  the  same  man.  If  it  got  out  that  a  doctor 
had  taken  to  praying  and  Scripture-reading,  he'd  lose 
his  practice  forthwith.  You  nor  I,  nor  anybody  else, 
ever  relished  hearing  a  doctor  pray.  The  professions 
have  to  be  kept  well  separated.  What  good  would  it  do 
8 


114  LYNX-HUNTING. 

for  a  lawyer  to  pray  in  public?  Everybody  would 
snicker.  That's  a  misfortune  all  doctors  and  lawyers 
share  together.  But  to  you  young  gentlemen,  who  are 
not  committed  to  any  profession,  allow  me  to  give  a 
word  of  advice.  Always  show  respect  for  the  Bible 
wad  for  the  sabbath.  Feel  as  much  of  it  as  you  can ; 
the  more  the  better,  of  course :  but  be  sure  to  show  it. 
Always  pat  the  Bible  on  the  back  when  you're  out  in 
good  society.  Pet  it ;  fondle  it.  Oh !  you  needn't 
laugh.  It'll  pay,  I  assure  you.  This  generation  of  peo- 
ple, take  'em  together,  are  still  pretty  sweet  on  the  good 
old  book  of  books ;  and  such  of  them  as  have  begun 
to  be  a  little  'shaky*  feel  sort  of  conscience-smitten 
about  it,  and  can't  help  respecting  a  fellow  who  stands 
up  for  the  Bible.  So,  if  you  want  the  public  to  think 
well  of  you,  and  trust  you,  and  put  you  ahead,  tend  out 
to  church  Sundays,  dressed  plainly,  but  neatly;  and 
no  matter  if  folks  get  in  the  way  of  seeing  you  with  a 
well-bound  copy  of  the  Scriptures  in  your  hands." 

All  this  the  Doctor  enforced  with  occasional  sagacious 
nods.  "  There,  boys,"  he  concluded,  "  I've  given  you 
some  sound  advice.  Try  it,  and  see  for  yourselves. 
Then,  changing  the  subject :  "Rather  warmer  this  morn- 
ing, isn't  it  ?  Wonder  how  the  glass  stands  ? "  and  he 
slipped  out  to  see. 

"Oh,  what  a  crocodile  the  Doctor  is!"  muttered 
Raed. 

After  breakfast,  we  set  a  good  fire  going,  and  sat  down 
to  read.  Wash  had  brought  up  "David  Copperfield." 
"Dombey  and  Son,"  and  "Oliver  Twist."  Raed  had 
Darwin's  "  Descent  of  Man, ''  and  TyndalPs  "  Frag- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  115 

laents  of  Science."  The  Doctor  was  vainly  sighing  for 
"  The  Morning  Journal."  Wash  offered  him  "  Copper- 
field;"  but  he  shook  his  head  gloomily. 

"  Never  much  fancied  Dickens,"  said  he  incidentally. 
"Don't  much  affect  low  English  character  myself. 
Dickens  may  have  been  good  at  that;  dare  say  he  was: 
but  I  can't  get  interested  in  it ;  not  very  much.  His 
plots  and  situations  don't  stir  a  man's  blood  much.  His 
characters  perform  no  grand  coups  d'etat.  They're  a 
homely,  grovelling  set,  and  go  plodding  along,  plodding 
along,  always  about  so-so." 

After  listening  to  so  decided  an  opinion  of  the 
"great  novelist,"  we  naturally  felt  some  curiosity  to 
know  who  were  the  Doctor's  favorite  authors.  Said 
Wash,  "  What  think  of  Charles  Eeade  ?  " 

The  Doctor  laughed  knowingly.  "  Ah,  well !  Eeade 
—  he's  a  sardonic  sort  of  a  fellow  ;  always  trying  to  give 
the  human  race  a  dig  in  the  ribs.  Shouldn't  wonder  if 
somebody  had  dug  him  in  the  ribs  pretty  hard  some 
time,  —  so  hard,  that  he  can't  seem  to  forget  it  readily. 
But  he  plots  better:  I  rather  like  his  plots.  And  as 
for  his  characters,  they've  more  grit  and  vim  to  'em  than 
Dickens's,  —  a  great  deal  more.  There's  more  action. 
On  the  whole,  I  rather  like  Eeade's  stories,  particularly 
his  court-trial  scenes.  But  I  must  say  he  is  rather 
given  to  epileptic-fits.  His  ' heroes7  do  drop  down  in 
a  fit  with  most  alarming  frequency.  Constitutional 
with  'em,  fairly.  But  give  me  Eeade  for  all  of  Dickens, 
barring  fits." 

Wade  produced  a  copy  of  "Foul  Play.'7 

"Here,  Doctor,"  said  he:  "this'll  suit  you,  I  guess. 
Only  one  fit  in  this,  I  believe." 


116  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  Thank  you,  thank  you ! "  replied  the  Doctor. 
"  Never  happened  to  read  '  Foul  Play.'  Guess  I'll 
try  it  on.  About  a  six-hours'  job,  isn't  it  ?  So  here 
goes/'  —  settling  his  back  against  one  of  the  upright 
stakes  which  answered  for  a  doorpost  to  our  camp. 

Conversation  died  out.  The  forenoon  was  sacred  to 
Dickens  —  and  Reade.  Chickadees,  with  their  plaintive 
little  minor  notes,  flitted  about.  A  couple  of  red-headed 
woodpeckers  came  and  tapped  noisily  on  one  of  the  tall 
stubs ;  then  departed  with  fitful  wafts  of  wing.  The 
wild  solitude  of  the  wilderness  stole  upon  our  silence. 
Ah,  how  profoundly  alone  is  he  who  buries  himself  in 
these  winter  forests  !  Alone,  and  yet  not  alone  ;  for  the 
wild  tribes  come  and  go  about  him,  and  give,  in  place  of 
the  thickly-woven  human  influences,  a  strangely  re- 
proachful companionship. 

Glancing  up  at  length  from  "  Dombey,"  I  saw  Baed 
shading  his  eyes,  and  looking  off  over  the  lake.  Down 
near  one  of  the  islands,  a  black  object,  seemingly  but  a 
mere  speck,  was  moving  along  on  the  snow.  In  the 
course  of  five  minutes  it  had  described  a  complete 
circle  of  perhaps  fifty  rods  diameter ;  and  it  still  con- 
tinued going  perse veringly  on,  apparently  upon  its  own 
trail.  We  watched  it  in  silence  a  few  moments ;  then 
resumed  our  reading.  But,  presently  looking  again,  I 
saw  the  animal  still  pursuing  its  circuitous  path  with 
a  sort  of  tireless  patience  that  showed  itself  even  at 
this  distance. 

"  What  can  the  creature  be  about  there  ?  "  Raed  ob- 
served in  a  low  voice.  "  Any  idea  what  it  is  ?  " 

Going  into  the  camp,  I  took  from  my  overcoat-pocket 


LYNX-HUNTING.  117 

a  small  dpy-glass  which  we  had  brought  with  us,  and, 
coming  out,  took  a  look  through  it.  The  distance  was 
rather  over  half  a  mile ;  but  the  eye,  thus  aided,  de- 
tected what  would  otherwise  have  passed  wholly  un- 
noticed, —  a  hare,  about  a  hundred  feet  in  advance  of 
the  black  creature,  leaping  wearily,  and  stopping  at 
frequent  intervals.  Its  fitful  motions  indicated  that  it 
was  neaily  exhausted.  Not  so  with  its  pursuer,  which, 
under  the  glass,  took  the  form  of  a  rather  long-bodied, 
slim  animal,  with  a  large,  long  tail,  but  short  legs.  We 
could  see  with  what  unflagging  pace  it  kept  up  its 
pursuit.  Gradually  they  both  worked  out  from  the 
island,  beating  up  the  lake. 

"  It's  one  of  those  otters,  isn't  it  ?  "  remarked  Kaed 
after  a  long  look.  "  Just  about  the  size ;  and  the  tail 
seems  similar  in  shape.  The  legs,  too,  are  like." 

But,  before  I  could  have  given  an  opinion,  Wash, 
who  had  put  down  "  Copperfield "  for  a  look,  pro- 
nounced against  this  supposition. 

"  Otters  never  take  that  pace,"  said  he.  "  They  go 
at  a  lope,  doubling  up  their  backs  with  every  jump: 
at  least,  that's  what  the  books  say.  That  chap  plods  on 
like  a  pacer.  And  then  I  never  heard  of  an  otter's 
chasing  its  prey  in  that  manner.  Kit,  isn't  that  a 
fisher?" 

It  was  a  fisher  unquestionably.  I  had  supposed  so  on 
first  sighting  the  hare ;  for  the  fisher  preys  principally 
on  the  hare,  which,  unless  surprised,  it  can  only  capture 
after  a  long  chase.* 

For  more  t]  an  an  hour  we  saw  them  going  on,  till 

*  See  Field  Notes. 


118  LYNX-HUNTING. 

they  had  come  off  nearly  opposite  our  camp.  The  hare 
was  now  but  a  few  yards  in  advance  of  its  grim  foe ; 
and  at  length  the  fisher  pounced  upon  it.  The  struggle 
was  but  a  momentary  one.  Very  deliberately  then  the 
victor  proceeded  to  regale  himself.  The  long  chase  had 
doubtless  given  him  a  good  appetite.  After  making 
what  seemed  a  hearty  meal,  the  creature  began  dragging 
and  carrying  off  the  remainder  of  the  carcass  toward  the 
farther  shore  of  the  lake.  We  watched  its  motions  with 
the  glass. 

"  Going  off  to  its  burrow,"  suggested  Wash. 

But  that  was  not  its  purpose  ;  for,  on  coming  within  a 
few  rods  of  the  alders,  it  dug  a  hole  in  the  snow,  and 
carefully  buried  the  body ;  then,  after  sniffing  around 
a  while  to  see  that  every  thing  was  all  right,  it  went  off 
down  the  shore. 

The  incident  brought  to  mind  a  singular  combat  I 
once  witnessed  near  the  head  of  Lake  Chesuncook, 
which  seems  too  good  an  item  to  be  lost  from  the 
natural  history  of  the  State. 

I  had  been  spending  the  day  in  the  neighboring 
forest,  hunting  for  a  black  squirrel  I  had  seen  there  the 
evening  before,  having  with  me  a  great  red-shirted 
lumberman,  named  Ben  Murch.  Not  finding  our 
squirrel,  we  were  making  our  way,  towards  evening, 
down  through  the  thick  alders  which  skirted  the  lake 
to  the  shore,  in  the  hope  of  getting  a  shot  at  an  otter  or 
a  mink ;  when,  on  a  sudden,  a  gruff  sound  —  a  sort  of 
quocJc,  quockj  accompanied  by  a  splashing  of  the  water 
—  came  to  our  ears. 

"  Hush  ! "  ejaculated  Ben,  clapping  his  hand  to  his 


LYNX-HUNTING.  119 

ear  (as  his  custom  was)  to  catch  the  sound.  "  Hear 
that  ?  Some  sort  of  a  fracas." 

And,  cautiously  pushing  through  the  dense  copse,  a 
very  singular  and  comical  spectacle  met  our  eyes ;  for 
out  some  two  or  three  rods  from  the  muddy,  grassy 
shore,  stood  a  tall,  a  very  tall,  bird,  —  somewhere  from 
four  to  five  feet,  I  judged,  —  with  long,  thin  black  legs, 
and  an  awkward  body  slovenly  clad  in  dull  gray-blue 
plumage.  The  neck  was  as  long  as  the  legs,  and  the 
head  small,  and  nearly  bare,  with  a  long,  yellowish  bill. 
Standing  knee-deep  in  the  muddied  water,  it  was,  on 
the  whole,  about  the  most  ungainly-looking  fowl  that 
can  well  be  imagined;  while  on  a  half-buried  tree- 
trunk,  running  out  towards  it  into  the  water,  crouched 
a  wiry  black  creature,  of  about  average  dog  size,  wrig- 
gling a  long,  restless  tail,  and  apparently  in  the  very 
act  of  springing  at  the  long-legged  biped  in  the  water. 
Just  now  they  were  eying  each  other  very  intently ;  but, 
from  the  splashed  and  bedraggled  appearance  of  both,  it 
was  evident  there  had  been  recent  hostilities,  which, 
judging  from  the  attitude  of  the  combatants,  were 
about  to  be  renewed. 

"  Show  ! "  exclaimed  Ben,  peering  over  my  shoulder 
from  behind.  "  An  old  kairn,  ain't  it  ?  Regular  old 
2)o7cey.  Thought  I'd  heerd  that  quock  before.  And 
that  creetur  ?  Let's  see.  Odd-looking  chap.  Wish 
he'd  turn  his  head  this  way.  Fisher,  ain't  it  ?  Looks 
like  one.  Should  judge  that's  a  fisher.  What  in  the 
world  got  them  at  loggerheads,  I  wonder  ?  " 

By  "hairn"  Ben  meant  heron,  the  great  blue  heron 
of  American  waters,  —  Anlea  Herodias  of  the  natu- 
ralists. 


120  LYNX-HUNTING 

The  fisher  had  probably  been  the  assailant ;  though 
both  had  now  that  intent,  tired-  down  air  which  marks 
&  long  fray.  He  had  no  doubt  crept  up  from  behind 
while  old  long-shanks  was  quietly  frogging  along  the 
shore. 

But  he  had  found  his  intended  victim  a  game  one. 
The  heron  had  a  character  to  sustain ;  and  although  he 
might  easily  have  flown  away,  or  even  waded  farther 
out,  yet  he  seemed  to  scorn  to  do  either. 

Not  an  inch  would  he  budge,  but  stood  with  his  long 
javelin-like  beak  poised,  ready  to  strike  into  the 
fisher's  eye,  uttering  from  moment  to  moment  that 
menacing,  guttural  quock  which  had  first  attracted 
our  attention. 

This  sound,  mingling  with  the  eager  snarling  and 
fretting  of  the  fisher,  made  about  the  most  dismal  and 
incongruous  duet  I  had  ever  listened  to. 

For  some  moments  they  stood  thus  threatening  and 
defying  each  other;  but  at  length,  lashing  itself  up  to 
the  proper  pitch  of  fury,  the  fisher  jumped  at  his 
antagonist,  open-mouthed,  to  seize  hold  of  the  long, 
slender  throat.  One  bite  at  the  heron's  slim  neck 
would  settle  the  whole  aifair. 

But  this  attempt  was  very  adroitly  balked  by  the 
plucky  old  wader's  taking  a  long  step  aside ;  when  the 
iisher  fell  into  the  water  with  a  great  splash,  and,  while 
struggling  back  to  the  log,  received  a  series  of  strokes, 
or  rather  stabs,  from  the  long,  pointed  beak,  dealt  down 
with  wonderful  swiftness,  and  force  too;  for  we  dis- 
tinctly heard  them  prod  into  the  fisher's  tough  hide  as 
he  scrambled  upon  the  log,  and  ran  spitting  up  the 
bank. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  121 

This  defeat,  however,  was  but  temporary,  as  any  one 
acquainted  with  the  singular  persistence  and  persever- 
ance of  the  whole  weasel  family  will  readily  guess. 
The  fisher  had  soon  worked  his  way  down  the  log  again, 
the  heron  retiring  to  his  former  position  in  the  water. 

Another  succession  of  quocks  and  growlings,  and 
another  spring,  with  even  less  success,  on  the  side  of  the 
fisher :  for,  this  time,  the  heron's  bill  wounded  one  of 
his  eyes ;  and,  as  he  again  retreated  up  the  log,  we  could 
see  the  bloody  tears  trickling  down  over  his  shaggy 
jowl. 

Thus  far,  the  battle  seemed  favorable  to  the  heron ; 
but  the  fisher  again  rallied,  and  now,  thoroughly  mad- 
dened, rushed  down  the  log,  and  leaped  blindly  upon  his 
foe. 

Again  and  again  his  attacks  were  parried.  The 
snarling  growls  now  rose  to  shrieks,  and  the  croaking 
quocks  to  loud,  dissonant  cries. 

"Faugh!"  muttered  Ben.  "Smell  his  breath  — 
fisher's  breath  —  clean  here.  Always  let  that  out  of 
7em,  somehow,  when  they're  mad." 

Even  at  our  distance,  that  strong  fetid  odor  which 
marks  the  weasel  family  could  plainly  be  discerned. 

"Old  hairn  seems  to  be  having  the  best  of  it,"  con- 
tinued Ben.  te  I  bet  on  him.  How  cool  he  keeps  ! 
Fights  like  the  Devil !  See  that  bill  come  down,  now ! 
Look  at  the  marks  it  makes  too  ! "  —  for  the  blood, 
oozing  out  through  the  thick  fur  of  the  cat  in  more 
than  a  dozen  spots,  was  attesting  the  prowess  of  the 
heron's  powerful  beak. 

But  at  length,   with   a  sudden  bound    upward,   the 


122  I/x  NX-HUNTING. 

fisher  fell  with  his  whole  weight  upon  the  back  of  his 
lathy  antagonist.  Old  long-legs  was  upset ;  and  down 
they  hoth  went  in  the  water,  where  a  prodigious  scuffle 
ensued.  Now  one  of  the  heron's  hig  feet  would  be 
thrust  up  nearly  a  yard ;  then  the  cat  would  come  to 
the  top,  sneezing  and  strangling ;  and  anon  the  heron's 
long  neck  would  loop  up  in  sight,  bending  and  doubling 
about  in  frantic  attempts  to  peck  at  its  foe,  its  cries  now 
resembling  those  of  a  hen  when  seized  in  the  night, 
save  that  they  were  louder  and  harsher. 

Over  and  over  they  floundered  and  rolled.  The  mud 
and  water  flew  about ;  long  legs,  shaggy  paws,  wet, 
wriggling  tail,  and  squawking  beak,  fur  and  feathers, 
all  turning  and  squirming  in  inextricable  confusion.  It 
was  hard  telling  which  was  having  the  best  of  the 
melee;  when,  on  a  sudden,  the  struggle  stopped  as  if  by 
magic. 

"  One  or  t'other  has  given  in,"  muttered  Ben. 

Looking  more  closely,  we  saw  that  the  fisher  had 
succeeded  in  getting  the  heron's  neck  into  his  mouth. 
One  bite  had  been  sufficient.  The  fray  was  over ;  and, 
after  holding  on  a  while,  the  victor,  up  to  his  back  in 
water,  began  moving  towards  the  shore,  dragging  along 
with  him  by  the  neck  the  body  of  the  heron,  whose 
great  feet  came  trailing  after  at  an  astonishing  distance 
behind. 

To  see  him,  wet  as  a  drowned  rat,  tugging  up  the 
muddy  bank  with  his  ill-omened  and  unsightly  prey, 
was  indeed  a  singular  spectacle.  Whatever  had  brought 
on  this  queer  contest,  the  fisher  had  won,  —  fairhr,  too, 
for  aught  I  could  see ;  and  I  hadn't  it  in  my  heart  to 
intercept  his  retreat. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  123 

But  Ben,  to  whom  a  "black  cat"  was  particularly 
obnoxious,  from  its  nefarious  habit  of  robbing  traps, 
had  no  such  scruples,  and,  bringing  up  his  rifle  with  the 
careless  quickness  of  an  old  woodsman,  fired  before  I 
could  interpose  a  word.  The  fisher  dropped. 

Leaving  him  to  take  off  its  skin,  —  for  the  fur  is 
worth  a  trifle,  —  I  was  strolling  along  the  shore,  when, 
upon  coming  under  a  drooping  cedar  some  six  or  seven 
rods  from  the  scene  of  the  fight,  another  large  heron 
sprang  out  of  a  clump  of  brambles,  and  stalked  off  with 
a  croak  of  distrust.  It  at  once  occurred  to  me  that 
there  might  be  a  nest  here  ;  and,  opening  the  brambles, 
lo  !  there  it  was,  —  a  broad,  clumsy  structure  of  coarse 
sticks,  some  two  or  three  feet  from  the  ground,  and  lined 
with  moss  and  water-grasses.  In  it,  or  rather  on  it, 
were  two  chicks,  — heron  chicks,  — uncouth  little  things, 
with  long,  skinny  legs  and  necks,  and  sparsely  clad  with 
tufts  of  gray  down.  And,  happening  to  glance  under 
the  nest,  I  perceived  an  egg  lodged  down  among  the 
bramble-stalks.  It  had  probably  rolled  out  of  the  nest. 
It  struck  me,  however,  as  being  a  very  small  egg  from 
so  large  a  bird ;  and,  having  a  rule  in  my  pocket,  I  found 
it  to  be  but  two  inches  and  a  half  in  length  by  an  inch 
and  a  half  in  width.  It  was  of  a  dull,  bluish-white 
color,  without  spots,  though  rather  rough  and  uneven. 

On  the  edge  of  the  nest  I  saw  several  small  perch,  a 
frog,  and  a  meadow-mouse,  all  recently  brought,  though 
the  place  had  a  suspicious  odor  of  carrion. 

All  this  while  the  old  heron  had  stood  at  a  little  dis- 
tance away,  uttering  now  and  then  an  ominous  croak. 
I  could  easily  have  shot  it  from  where  I  stood,  but 
thought  the  family  had  suffered  enough  for  one  day. 


124  LYNX-HUNTING. 

The  presence  of  the  nest  accounted  for  the  obstinacy 
with  which  the  old  male  heron  had  contested  the  ground 
with  the  fisher. 

Both  old  birds  are  said  to  sit,  by  turns,  upon  the  eggs. 
But  the  nests  are  not  always  placed  so  near  the  ground 
as  this  one.  Last  summer,  while  fishing  from  what 
is  called  the  "  Pappoose's  Pond,"  I  discovered  one  in 
the  very  top  of  a  lofty  Norway  pine,  —  a  huge  bunch  of 
sticks  and  long  grass,  upon  the  edge  of  which  one 
of  the  old  herons  was  standing  on  one  foot,  perfectly 
motionless,  with  its  neck  drawn  down,  and  seemingly 
asleep. 

After  dinner,  Wash  proposed  going  down  to  look  to 
the  traps  we  had  set  for  the  otters. 

"  What,  on  the  Lord's  Day  ! "  cried  the  Doctor,  who 
had  again  settled  himself  for  the  perusal  of  "Foul 
Play."  "Ah,  Washington,  Washington!  I  see  that 
your  heart  is  set  to  do  wickedly.  Remember  whose 
great  name  ye  bear.  Why  can't  you  wait  till  morn- 
ing?" 

"It's  a  clear  case  of  humanity,"  Wash  explained. 
"  Mercy  toward  the  poor  animals  demands  that  we 
should  not  keep  them  lying  there  in  the  traps,  suffering, 
an  hour  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary." 

"Listen  not  to  the  self-deceiving  sophist,"  said  the 
Doctor  with  impressive  solemnity  to  the  rest  of  us. 
"  He  differs  very  little  from  that  sinful  man  whom  the 
Scriptures  describe  as  laboring  all  the  week  to  get  his  — 
his  jack-a-bottom  into  the  pit,  for  the  sake  of  pulling 
him  out  Sunday." 

"  Whereabouts  in  the  Scriptures  d  •  you  find  that, 
Doctor  ?  "  demanded  Wash. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  125 

"  Hum !  I  think  —  I  think  it's  somewhere  along  near 
the  last  of  Revelation,  said  the  Doctor,  resuming  his 
reading  very  demurely. 

"  Come  on  ! "  said  Wash,  much  disgusted.  "  The 
walk  will  do  us  good.  And,  if  there's  an  otter  in  the 
trap,  I'll  take  it  upon  my  soul  to  put  him  out  of  his 
misery  without  anybody  else  participating  in  the  crime." 

So  we  got  on  our  rackets,  and  went  leisurely  down 
the  lake.  The  Doctor  did  not  choose  to  go  with  us. 
He  was  deeply  interested  in  "  Foul  Play." 

There  was  nothing  stirring  about  the  stump.  The 
trap  we  had  set  inside  the  hole  in  it  was  not  sprung. 
We  went  on  down  to  the  bank,  and  looked  over.  The 
one  we  had  set  there  under  water,  in  the  mouth  of  the 
burrow,  was  gone,  —  drawn  up  out  of  sight  into  the 
hole,  with  the  chain  tight. 

"Got  him,  I  guess,"  said  Wash ;  and,  pulling  it  out  by 
the  chain,  sure  enough,  there  was  a  long,  sleek  black  fel- 
low, fast  by  one  of  his  chubby  legs.  But  he  was  quite 
dead,  —  drowned.  The  hole  opening  into  the  lake  was 
probably  full  of  water  for  some  distance  up  the  burrow. 
When  caught,  the  otter  seemed  to  have  darted  into  the 
hole ;  and,  the  chain  preventing  it  from  going  up  out  of 
the  water,  it  had  struggled  there  till  it  had  drowned. 

The  fur  was  of  a  creamy-brown  color,  thickly  inter- 
spersed with  longer  black  hairs,  which  gives  the  animal, 
at  a  little  distance,  the  appearance  of  being  wholly 
black.  The  ears  were  small,  and  far  apart ;  the  feet 
short,  and  webbed  like  those  of  a  goose  ;  and  the  tail 
rather  large  and  thick.  The  entire  length  of  the  ani- 
mal, including  the  tail,  was  four  feet  seven  inches. 


126  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  How  do  you  suppose  these  fellows  live  ?  —  wholly 
upon  fish  that  they  eaten,  out  iu  the  lake,  under  the 
ice  ?  "  Raed  questioned. 

From  the  absence  of  tracks  leading  off  from  the 
stamp,  we  could  not  conjecture  any  other  mode  of  sus- 
tenance. Wash  remarked,  that  it  was  the  opinion  of 
naturalists  that  the  otter  feeds  principally  on  fish. 

But  to  fish  must  be  added  frogs,  eels,  and  even  water- 
snakes,  which  the  otter  frequently  seizes  upon  in 
warm  weather.  An  old  trapper  informs  me  that  he 
once  came  upon  an  otter  devouring  a  hare  it  had  but 
just  captured ;  and  an  old  citizen  of  Somerset  County 
tells  the  rather  tough  story  of  an  otter  that  regularly 
watched  for  and  caught  woodchucJcs.  That  the  otter 
sometimes  preys  upon  the  young  of  water-fowl,  I  can 
confirm  from  my  own  observation  of  its  habits.  A  few 
yeais  since,  while  acting  as  assistant  engineer  during 
the  survey  of  one  of  our  back  townships,  I  had  occasion 
to  pass  and  repass  for  a  whole  week  along  the  bank  of  a 
certain  flowed  "thoroughfare"  connecting  two  small 
lakes.  It  was  a  crooked  stream  ;  one  sharp  bend  in  par- 
ticular enclosing  a  low,  narrow  "point  "  of  six  or  eight 
rods  extent. 

Out  at  the  very  extremity  of  this  point,  and  standing 
partly  in  the  water  now  that  the  stream  was  flowed,  was 
a  low,  scrubby  cedar.  Its  wide,  drooping  lower  limbs 
were  partly  submerged  in  the  water.  I  had  noticed  it 
from  the  other  shore  at  some  distance  below. 

Among  the  houghs  of  this  cedar,  up  eight  or  ten  feet, 
was  a  wood-duck's  nest,  —  the  prettiest  and  most  inter- 
esting of  all  the  wild  ducks  in  our  northern  waters. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  127 

The  young  ones  were  hatched.  There  were  nine  of 
the  little  yellow  downy  chicks.  I  could  have  easily  shot 
the  old.  ones,  but  forbore,  and  very  soon  became  much 
interested  in  watching  their  movements  in  their  reedy, 
sylvan  home. 

On  the  fifth  day  they  began  to  leave  the  nest.  I  do 
not  know  whether  this  was  caused  by  the  mother-bird, 
or  was  prompted  by  instinct  on  the  part  of  the  young 
ones.  They  were  far  from  being  large  enough  to  fly ; 
but  one  by  one,  during  the  day,  they  scrambled  over  the 
edge  of  the  nest,  and  fluttered  down  into  the  water. 

Some  of  them  seemed  to  merely  fall  without  using 
their  wings  at  all.  Once  in  the  water,  they  were  at 
home,  and  floated  off  among  the  rushes  like  egg-shells. 
There  was  something  amusing  in  their  familiarity  with 
the  water.  Buoyant  as  corks,  there  was  no  danger  of 
their  drowning.  They  had  only  to  draw  back  their  tiny 
necks  and  sit  quiet,  or  paddle  on  at  pleasure. 

The  mother-duck  swam  back  and  forth,  piloting  out 
each  chick  as  it  fluttered  down.  When,  at  length,  they 
had  all  left  the  nest,  she  swam  away  into  the  open 
water,  with  the  whole  flock  tossing  and  rippling  about 
her.  It  was  a  very  pretty  sight. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  she  came  back  under  the  nest 
with  her  brood ;  and  they  sat  all  night,  clustered  together 
beneath  the  cedar-boughs.  After  sunrise  the  next 
morning,  they  started  again  for  the  open  water.  As  I 
came  past,  I  saw  them  sail  out  through  the  reeds  toward 
the  channel.  The  old  one  seemed  to  be  feeding  them 
on  some  sort  of  water-bugs. 

The  current  bore  some    of   them  occasionally  away 


128  LYNX-HTJNTING. 

from  the  mother ;  though,  as  soon  as  they  were  ten  o/ 
a  dozen  feet  from  her,  they  would  exert  themselves  to 
get  back.  One  of  them,  however,  was  hardly  strong 
enough  to  breast  the  current.  Notwithstanding  his  ef- 
forts to  reach  the  mother,  he  was  carried  farther  and 
farther  down  the  stream. 

The  old  duck  didn't  seem  to  notice  his  trouble :  she 
was  absorbed  with  the  other  eight.  It  quite  excited  my 
sympathies  to  see  him  borne  so  relentlessly  away. 
When  he  had  been  carried  forty  or  fifty  feet  from  the 
rest  of  the  brood,  there  was  a  great  splash,  and  the  chick 
suddenly  disappeared  under  the  water. 

The  old  duck  heard  the  splash.  She  glanced  suspi- 
ciously around,  seemed  to  miss  one  of  her  brood,  and  at 
once  swam  along  to  where  a  bubble  or  two  struggled  up 
to  the  surface  of  the  stream.  Turning  her  head  down, 
she  looked  into  the  water,  eagerly  scanning  the  depths 
below;  then,  going  back,  gathered  the  chicks  together, 
and  hurried  towards  the  shore,  as  if  apprehending  fur- 
ther danger. 

But  what  sort  of  a  creature  had  pulled  down  the  poor 
little  duckling  so  remorselessly  ? 

I  concluded  that  it  was  a  muskrat  which  had  his  mud- 
house  over  on  the  other  bank  of  thte  thoroughfare,  and, 
watching  my  chance,  sent  a  ball  through  the  creature 
just  as  he  was  getting  up  on  the  roof  of  his  house  to 
enjoy  the  afternoon  sun.  Without  a  single  sound  or 
complaint,  the  poor  little  victim  rolled  off  into  the  water, 
and  floated  down  with  the  current. 

By  the  next  morning,  the  old  duck  had  forgotten  her 
loss.  She  again  took  her  brood  out  into  the  stream.  I 


LYNX-HUNTING.  129 

watched  them  for  a  time  floating  about  so  prettily. 
There  were  eight  of  them.  Something  drew  my  atten- 
tion from  them  for  a  few  minutes.  When  I  again  looked, 
there  were  but  seven. 

I  began  to  regret  the  summary  justice  I  had  dealt  to 
the  muskrat.  Poor  fellow !  —  killed  on  mere  suspicion. 

Then  I  surmised  it  to  have  been  a  snake,  and,  feeling 
interested,  launched  my  skiff,  and,  getting  in,  paddled  to 
the  spot.  The  old  duck  instantly  sailed  back  among 
the  rushes,  with  all  the  little  ones  bobbing  after  her. 
The  water  was  ten  or  fifteen  feet  deep,  and  the  bottom 
muddy.  I  could  just  discern  the  old  sunken  logs  lying 
bedded  in  the  mud.  Then  I  searched  along  both  banks, 
for  twenty  rods  or  more,  for  water-snakes,  and  saw  sever- 
al sunning  themselves  on  old  tree-trunks  that  projected 
into  the  stream ;  but  neither  of  them  seemed  the  crimi- 
nal for  which  I  was  in  search. 

The  duck  did  not  desert  her  home  under  the  cedar. 
Next  morning  saw  her  leading  out  her  brood  once  more. 
My  curiosity  was  roused ;  and  I  determined  to  watch 
sharply  to  see  if  another  chick  was  taken.  The  young 
ones  could  now  swim  much  better  than  on  the  first  day. 
They  paddled  from  the  mother  in  all  directions,  some  to 
a  distance  of  several  rods.  They  had  not  been  feeding 
more  than  fifteen  minutes,  when  another  disappeared 
under  the  water  with  a  quick  splash.  Something  black 
glanced  up  from  the  surface  of  the  stream  the  same 
instant.  It  was  so  smartly  done,  that  I  believed  it  to  be 
a  fish  ;  and,  if  a  fish,  why  not  fish  for  it  ? 

An  idea  occurred  to  me.  The  day  before,  I  had  stum- 
bled upon  a  partridge-nest  containing  a  dozen  or  more 
9 


180  LYNX-HUNTING. 

chicks  but  just  hatched.  It  was  a  rather  cruel  tiling; 
but  I  determined  to  use  one  of  them  for  hait.  I  went 
out  to  the  nest,  brought  one,  and  put  it  in  the  bottom  of 
the  skiff  to  keep  it  from  running  away ;  then  tied  two 
strong  pickerel-lines  together,  at  the  end  of  which  was  a 
stout  hook  attached  to  gimp. 

Not  to  kill  the  partridge-chick,  and  thus  lose  the  ad- 
vantage of  Iwe  bait,  I  tied  it  to  the  hook  quite  closely, 
yet  not  so  as  to  prevent  the  use  of  its  legs  or  wings; 
and,  to  make  it  all  float,  attached  a  cork  I  happened  to 
have  in  my  pocket.  This  done,  I  raised  the  other  end 
of  the  line  upon  a  high  pole  so  that  it  would  clear  the 
rushes,  and  then  threw  the  hook  and  bait  out  into  the 
middle  of  the  stream,  considerably  above  the  spot  where 
the  duck  had  been  caught,  so  that  they  might  float  down 
past  the  cedar.  The  little  partridge  fluttered  and  splashed 
as  the  current  bore  it  away ;  but  the  cork  kept  it  from 
sinking.  It  floated  on :  there  were  no  bites.  I  drew  in 
the  line,  and  threw  it  again;  and  again  it  floated  past  on 
the  sluggish  stream.  But,  at  the  third  throw,  there 
came  the  same  quick  splash  as  when  the  duckling  was 
seized ;  and  down  went  the  chick.  Instantly  the  line 
tightened  with  a  jerk,  but  held.  There  was  a  great  pull- 
ing to  and  fro,  accompanied  by  a  waving  motion  of  the 
water.  I  pulled  on  the  line,  but  did  not  attempt  to 
draw  it  in,  lest  the  heavy  strain  should  break  it.  Whip- 
ping it  round  a  sapling,  and  jumping  into  the  skiff,  I 
paddled  out  into  the  stream ;  but,  before  I  had  come  over 
the  spot  where  the  line  was  fast,  a  large  brown-black 
creature  floated  up  to  the  surface,  half  drowned.  It  was 
a  good-sized  female  otter. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  181 

Afterwards  I  found  its  burrow  under  Lie  opposite 
bank,  with  two  pretty,  pale,  pink-gray  cubs,  seemingly 
about  a  fortnight  old. 

On  reaching  camp,  we  found  the  Doctor  "  wholly  un- 
conscious "  in  "  Foul  Play."  He  didn't  so  much  as  no- 
tice our  otter,  —  a  compliment  for  Mr.  E/eade ;  or  else 
he  did  not  wish  to  give  countenance  to  our  breakage  of 
the  sabbath. 

The  weather  was  dull,  dark,  and  cloudy.  A  mist  had 
begun  to  fall,  not  just  like  a  summer  mist ;  but  the  snow 
"  gave  "  under  it.  Mingled  with  the  damp  murk,  there 
fell  an  occasional  snowflake  large  as  a  feather.  It 
dulled  even  the  red  ardor  of  our  old  pine-fire. 

"  A  dismal  night,"  Eaed  observed. 

Out  in  the  woods,  the  hoots  of  an  owl  came  dolefully 
at  intervals,  —  one  of  the  most  depressing  sounds  to 
which  the  darkening  woods  echo,  and  known  to  the 
settlers  as  a  sure  sign  of  rain.  As  we  sat  listening,  the 
peculiar  querulous  screech  of  a  lucivee  came  faintly  from 
the  far  mountain-side  ;  answered,  a  moment  later,  down 
in  the  swamp.  Even  the  wild  beasts  were  complainingly 
affected ;  and  anon  there  began  that  wild  lonely  note  to 
which  the  autumn  woods  so  frequently  resound  at  even- 
tide. 

"What's  that?  —  that  noise?"  exclaimed  the  Doc- 
tor, looking  up  from  his  dusky  pages. 

Just  then  the  plaintive  alto  call,  with  its  prolonged 
quavers,  was  repeated. 

"By  Jove,  if  that  isn't  a  queer  sound!"  cr'ed  the 
Doctor.  "  An  Indian  devil,  ain't  it  ?  " 

"  That's  a  raccoon,  Doctor,"  I  said. 


132  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  A  'coon  !  Possible !  No  idea  that  they  made  such 
a  noise  as  that." 

Wade  remarked  that  it  reminded  him  of  the  nights 
we  had  camped  out  at  Katahdin. 

"But  'coons  are  usually  denned  up  at  this  season," 
observed  Wash,  "  if  I  read  correctly." 

We  supposed  that  the  "  warm  spell "  had  invited  it 
out.  A  thaw  often  wakes  up  the  raccoons,  even  at  mid- 
winter. The  note  was  repeated  at  intervals  of  about 
half  a  minute  for  some  time.  But  the  creature  was 
moving  off;  and  presently  the  sounds  died  out  in  the  dis- 
tance. A  more  mysterious  noise  had  begun,  however, 
low,  at  first,  as  the  sigh  of  the  wind,  but  increasing  in 
loudness  as  the  twilight  faded  in  the  damp  darkness  of 
the  night.  It  came  from  far  down  the  lake. 

"It's  a  sudden  storm  coming  on,"  Raed  had  said  at 
first. 

"But  it  can't  be,"  he  added  a  few  minutes  later. 
"  That's  not  the  wind." 

An  unknown  sound  is  always  disquieting.  Wash  got 
up  uneasily  to  throw  on  more  wood. 

Thus  far,  the  noises  had  seemed  to  come  from  the 
lower  end  of  the  lake,  seven  or  eight  miles  away ;  but, 
as  he  stood  poking  the  fire,  they  suddenly  drew  nearer. 
A  deep  groan  rose  nigh  at  hand.  We  all  jumped  to  our 
feet,  with  our  eyes  strained  on  the  great  white  expanse 
stretching  off  under  the  black  heavens.  It  seemed 
down  by  the  islands, — a  smothered  moaning;  then, 
on  a  sudden,  it  came  rushing  up,  and  passed  on  toward 
the  head  of  the  lake,  —  vast  billowy  grumblings,  accom- 
panied by  a  fearful  muffled  gurgling,  a  plunging  of 


LYNX-HUNTING. 

waters  under  the  ice  and  the  deep  snow,  as  of  some 
huge  aquatic  monster,  mad  from  confinement,  and 
struggling  for  breath.  The  Doctor  had  dropped  his 
novel :  for  once  he  looked  frightened.  Wash  and  Wade 
glanced  superstitiously  at  each  other.  E-aed  looked  in- 
quiringly to  me. 

"Ever  hear  any  thing  like  that  before  ?  "  he  asked. 

I  had,  but  never  so  loud,  so  terrific.  It  was  the 
roaring  and  groaning  of  the  air  under  the  ice,  — a  phe- 
nomenon not  uncommon  on  our  Northern  lakes  during 
the  frozen  season,  at  the  beginning  of  a  thaw.  The 
cause  is  probably  the  expansion  which  the  air  under 
the  ice  and  in  the  water  undergoes  with  the  relaxation 
of  the  intense  cold.  The  prodigious  sheet  of  ice,  with 
its  load  of  snow,  —  millions  of  tons,  —  presses  down 
upon  the  water ;  and  the  surplus  of  air,  from  expansion, 
sets  its  currents  under  the  ice  toward  some  point 
of  less  resistance,  —  the  shore,  or  some  tiny  air-hole. 
These  subteraqueous  currents,  rushing  along  with  the 
speed  of  race-horses  and  the  force  of  locomotives,  occa- 
sion the  groaning  and  roaring  sounds.  Any  thing  more 
dismal  can  hardly  be  imagined,  or  more  startling,  at 
first,  to  one  ignorant  of  the  cause. 

The  Doctor  could  hardly  receive  the  explanation  as 
sufficient;  and,  indeed,  I  had  never  heard  any  thing 
quite  like  this  in  the  volume  of  sound,  and  absurd  effect 
on  the  ear.  Altogether,  it  makes  one  of  the  most  vivid 
recollections  of  our  hunt.  There  was  a  sort  of  unearth- 
liness  about  it.  We  sat  there  attempting  to  read  till 
after  nine  o'clock :  but  the  sounds  claimed  our  attention 
in  the  main,  increasing  steadily  in  loudness  and  hor- 


134  LYNX-HUNTING. 

rid  intonation,  —  now  a  long-drawn  moan,  merging  sud- 
denly in  a  hollow  gurgling;  then  a  swift,  cutting 
sound,  like  the  rush  of  the  wind  through  narrow  cracks, 
ending  in  mournful  murmurs.  These  all,  from  some 
conformation  of  the  ice  or  the  shores,  seemed  to  start 
miles  down  the  lake,  and  come  roaring  and  gurgling  up 
to  its  very  head. 

We  turned  in,  and  finally  went  to  sleep ;  though  the 
sounds  continued  unabated. 

Late  in  the  night,  Eaed  waked  me.     He  was  up. 

"  Just  come  out  a  moment,"  he  said,  "  and  listen." 

The  lake  seemed  convulsed  with  agony.  It  was 
really  affrighting.  Not  a  breath  of  air  stirred  the 
woods.  Every  thing  was  dark  and  still,  save  for  the 
restless  bellowings  from  those  subterglacial  chambers. 
Coming  on  the  stillness,  each  groan  seemed  to  thrill  the 
listening  forests. 

"  I  should  think  that  all  the  demons  in  Bale  were 
struggling,  charging,  fighting  their  way  up  from  hell, 
only  to  souse  and  drown  each  other  down  there  under 
the  ice,"  was  Baed's  comment,  given  in  sober  earnest 
too.  It  struck  me  as  involving  a  very  forcible  figure; 
and  I  determined  to  remember  it  at  the  time. 


EIGHTH  DAY. 

Going  the  Round  of  the  Traps.  —  A  Lively  Scrimmage.-  -Not  a 
Loupcervier,  but  a  "Bay  Lynx."  —  Story  of  a  Bay  Lynx.  — 
Our  Third  Otter.  —  Fishing  through  the  Ice  again.  —  A  New 
Excitement.  —  The  Doctor's  Baby.  —  "  Come,  Baby,  come  down  : 
we  won't  hurt  you."  —  A  "Bad  Sell."  —  Anecdote  of  a  Fisher 
and  a  Raccoon. 

IT  was  broken  weather  next  morning,  with  a  light  west 
wind.  The  thermometer  had  fallen  from  thirty-nine 
degrees  above  to  thirty-four  degrees  above.  The  noises 
from  the  lake  had  ceased ;  but  we  all  retained  confused 
recollections  of  "  terrible  carryings-on "  in  the  night. 
The  Doctor  was  moody.  He  never  heard  of  a  lake  so 
distressingly  afflicted  with  colic  before.  ;Twas  entirely 
out  of  his  line  of  practice. 

We  went  off  to  examine  our  traps  directly  after 
breakfast,  —  all  but  the  Doctor :  he  staid  to  finish 
"Foul  Play."  The  one  set  alone  beside  the  second 
muck-hole  held  a  small  lynx,  —  a  last  spring  kitten  ap- 
parently. The  two  clogs  had  been  too  heavy  for  it  to 
drag  off.  We  found  it  not  three  rods  from  where  the 
trap  had  been  set.  Wash  despatched  it  —  scientifically. 

One  of  the  traps  at  the  fox-bones  had  been  sprung, 

135 


MOT  MI  s  nNG. 


HIM!  dr.  i  ......  I     nun-  mi]    ;    hut   the  hea.<t   li:i«l  :  haken   if  "IV. 

A    li:ili«llul    of  gray  fur  still    ••Inn;,'    in    tin-  jaw-;    Inil.    tliu 

bait  which  hod  hung  over  it  had  not  l»«-.-n  t:iK«.n. 

The  I  rap  in  i  In-  lynx  trad  leading  up  the  mountain- 
M.I.-  was  gone,  —  both  clogs  with  it  toot     Tin-  <  n-aturo 

(as    we   .saw    l.y    its    trail)    li:t«l     made    a    l...ll,    and     -..IK- 

straight   up  tin-  mountain-side  at  a  pla.-r  \\lu>re  it  was 

steep.      It  did   not  Sooin    likely    thai    it    ronld    have 

gone  any  great  distance.  We  followed  immediately. 
lint  hall  a  d.'/.rn  rods  up  among  the  spruces,  we  came 
upon  one  of  the  clogs  shaken  off. 

\\.uh-  had  pndi.-ii  ..it  \\-liil.  pped  to  look  at  the 

clog.     A  iiMMnont  later  he  called  to  us,  and  fired     We 
up. 

him  —  for  just  a    second!"   Wade    ex- 
"  SAW  his  gray  back  I     Hark!" 
\\  '••  i-oulil  hear  the  trap  clatter  as  the  animal  <  limhrd 
up  anionjr  the  rocks. 

1   l'.i«  on  the  lookout!     He  won't  run  far  up  hen   with- 
out stopping  to  rest,"  panted  Wash  as  we  climbed  up, 

i-atrliini;  hold  of  the  prickly  hrandies. 

\Ve  \\nrkcd  our  way  to  the  hot  tom  of  a  mass  of  over- 
hanging rocks;  \vlien.  hearing  a  noise  as  of  claws 
M-rat  rliing  on  bare  stones,  we  looked  .-anti 
the  animal  in  a  sort  of  figure  or  great  crevice.  But, 
the  instant  I  raised  the  rifle,  it  growled,  and  drew  back 
out  <>f  sijjht  ;  and,  climbing  up  a  little  nearer,  we  could 

srr  that   the  lissun-  led  1-ark   into  a  dark  lioli-. 

>:   a  den  then-."  xii<|   luved. 

\VhatV  tO   1"    done?      I  low  shall  we   -et    at    him  V" 
inanded. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  1:>7 

"Ought  to  IJHVO  Grip  hen-,"  replied  Kaed.  "You 
utay  hen-,  ;ind  keep  f,ho  game,  in  i  J'JI  go  hiirlt  to  camp 

for  him/' 

Oil'  he  went;  and  tin;  rest  of  us  stood  guard  with 
COCkad  gttOii  '»  the  course  ol'  lil'leen  minuten  wo 
li<  :ud  voices,  and  soon  saw  Ilicin  Doming, —  K:ied  an*' 
(jj'ij),  with  the  \)» n:\m-  hard  behind.  'Die  \)<><-\<>r  had  a 
])«>le.  (irij)  r,ajn<{  dasliiu^  on  ahe^ul  of  them,  and  ran 
•lit  up  to  the  mould  of  the  den. 

"A  eat,  is  it?"  .said  the  J)o.-i.or,  cJimhing  up,  "  S-t  ! 
tahe,  him,  Orip!  —  <ali<;  Jiiiu!" 

(jrip  ju;-li(  d  in  ;  aJid  a  prodigious  upr-  •  d, — • 

growls,  harks,  and  .snurls,  •—  in  Ihe  mid;-t  of  whieh  tho 
}i(;iuid  sj>rang  out,  with  two  pale,  hright  npofs  in  the, 
hlaekne^s  hehi/id  hijj).  The,  poor  dog'n  <;:ir.s  wen?  wo- 
fullyslit;  au<J  tlien;  wej-e,  several  long  scratches  on  IIJ'H 
.ind  jowl.  Il<;  whiiied,  ajjd  cant  a  reproachful  look 
at  the  Doctor' for  getting  him  into  Hiich  a  Hcrajx:. 

"Too  had!"  •  oiiuin.-erated  Wad<i. 

"Jlouud  can't  manage  Ijirn,"  said  Ifaed.  "  Might 
have  fired  at  his  r,y(n  wheji  IK;  «  let  <  d  (\r\\>  out,  if  wo 
Jiad  hecn  i-ea<ly/' 

The  I'l/i'ii  had  now  vanish«:<J.     'I'h<;  dejj  was  a  dark  one. 

(i  Let's  get  hark,  Jnak<;  a  lorch,  and  run  it  in  on  t.lio 
p<J<-.  -I  Wash.  "  J'cj'haps  wo  cau  sJjoot  liim." 

Som<}  shre<ls  of  hark  wen;  pooled  from  a  white-birch 
landing  near,  Tl  •  lighted,  and  .si  uck  upon  fho 

end  ol'  the,  pole. 

"  Now  ho  ready  to  shoot/'  naid  Wash,  thrusting  it 
nlowly  In. 

'J'Jio  light  di;<closod   a  damp,   dark    hole,   which,  at    a 


138  L¥NX-HUNTING. 

little  distance,  turned  off  behind  great  rocks.  The  crea- 
ture had  gone  in  back  of  these ;  and,  to  get  the  torch 
in  toward  him,  Wash  was  reaching  in  with  the  pole. 
All  at  once  there  was  a  spit.  Wash  jumped  back, 
and  tried  to  draw  out  the  pole,  but  only  got  it  crosswise. 
Out  leaped  the  cat  with  the  trap,  and,  striking  blindly 
against  the  pole,  swept  us  all  down  the  rocks  with  it 
in  a  heap  together. 

There  was  a  great  din  and  shouting.  The  other 
barrel  of  the  shot-gun  went  off  accidentally.  'Twas  a 
wonder  we  hadn't  slaughtered  each  other.  But,  saving 
a  few  bumps  and  grazings,  nobody  was  hurt ;  and,  pick- 
ing ourselves  up,  we  saw  the  creature  running  off 
through  the  snow,  down  into  the  woods,  dragging  the 
trap,  with  Grip  in  hot  pursuit.  Away  they  went. 
But  Grip  was  soon  so  close  upon  it,  that  it  faced  about 
at  the  foot  of  a  great  beech. 

"Load  up  quick!"  cried  Raed.  "We'll  have  him 
yet ! " 

Wash  made  up  toward  it  with  the  rifle.  The  crea- 
ture was  so  taken  up  with  the  hound,  that  it  didn't 
seem  to  notice  him.  The  dog  was  barking  excitedly. 
We  could  also  hear  the  cat  growl.  Wash  fired;  and 
the  animal  fell  over  into  the  snow.  Grip  rushed  in  and 
throttled  it. 

On  examining  it,  we  found  that  it  was  not  like  the 
other  lynxes  we  had  caught.  Its  feet,  instead  of  being 
padded  with  fur  on  the  bottoms,  were  bare  as  a  dog's. 
The  tassels,  too,  on  its  ears,  were  less  distinct ;  and  its 
fur  was  not  of  so  fine  a  shade :  it  was  a  duller  gray. 
Its  shape  also  differed :  it  was  more  lathy. 


OUT  LEAPED  THE  CAT  WITH  THE  TRAP. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  139 

Both  Mr.  Burleigh  and  myself  felt  sure  it  was  a  Bay 
lynx,  instead  of  the  loupcervier.  Though  I  had  seen 
but  two  individuals  of  the  Bay  lynx,  yet  this  animal 
struck  me  as  bearing  a  marked  resemblance  to  the  first 
of  these,  which  is  inseparably  connected  with  a  very 
exciting  incident  of  boyhood. 

About  half  a  mile  to  the  westward  of  the  writer's  for- 
mer residence,  Oxford  County,  there  is  a  rocky  precipice 
known  as  the  "Fall-oiF, "  since  it  falls  off  at  the  end  of 
the  ridge  upon  which  the  half-dozen  farms  which  made 
up  our  little  rustic  neighborhood  were  situated. 

Going  out  through  the  pastures,  one  comes  suddenly 
upon  the  very  brink  of  it,  and  may  look  down  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  into  a  wild,  inky-looking  sheet  of 
water  called  "  Winona's  Pond ; "  for  Winona,  a  pretty 
Indian  girl,  jumped  over  here  into  the  pond  (at  least, 
that's  what  they  say)  years  ago,  when  the  Pequaw- 
kets  lived  in  these  woods. 

Some  say  it  was  because  her  lover  had  deserted  her 
for  another  pretty  squaw;  and  another  story  is  that 
he  had  been  taken  prisoner,  and  burned  to  death,  by  a 
band  of  Mohawks,  who  sometimes  used  to  come  down 
the  Kennebec  and  Penobscot  in  their  war-canoes. 
Whichever  is  true,  the  poor  maiden  must  have  been 
in  a  desperate  state  of  mind;  for  a  bare  glance  over 
into  the  waters  beneath  is  enough  to  make  one's  "hair 
stand." 

Down  some  fifty  feet  from  the  top  there  is  a  narrow 
crevice,  or  rather  shelf,  running  along  the  side,  only  a 
few  feet  in  width,  but  always  damp  and  mossy  from 
the  trickling  waters.  And  here  a  pine-tree  —  a  tall, 


140  LYNX-HUNTING. 

slender  trunk,  almost  rubbing  against  the  rocks  —  has 
grown  up,  tbe  green  bouglis  of  its  top  just  visible  as 
you  come  out  through  the  pasture  toward  the  brink  of 
the  crag. 

My  grandfather's  farm  was  the  last  one  on  the  ridge,  — 
che  one  nearest  the  "Fall-off;"  and  the  sheep-pasture 
extended  out  to  it. 

It  was  in  "  harvesting-time,"  —  last  of  September.  I 
had  gone  down  to  "  salt "  the  sheep  one  morning.  Grand- 
father had  a  small  flock  of  Southdowns,  —  a  breed 
lately  imported,  of  which  he  was  very  proud. 

They  were  great  pets,  and  very  tame.  But  this 
morning  they  failed  to  appear  in  answer  to  call. 

Thinking  they  had  perhaps  jumped  the  fence,  I  kept 
on,  calling  as  I  went,  down  toward  the  lower  side  of  the 
pasture ;  when,  on  coming  near  the  edge  of  the  crag,  a 
sad  sight  met  my  eyes. 

There  lay  the  whole  flock  huddled  together.  At 
D  rst  I  had  thought  they  were  asleep,  and  ran  toward 
them  to  scare  them  up.  But  they  did  not  stir ;  and  I 
soon  saw  that  their  white  faces  were  dabbled  with 
blood.  Eleven  of  them  lying  there,  —  all  dead!- — not 
torn  in  pieces,  nor  mangled ;  but  each  had  a  great  gap- 
ing bite  in  the  neck,  where  the  life-blood  had  been 
sucked  out. 

What  blood-thirsty  beast  had  done  this  ? 

Dogs,  bad  ones,  sometimes  kill  sheep;  but  no  dog 
would  have  made  such  a  wholesale  slaughter,  I  felt  sure. 
Wolves,  perhaps.  I  ran  back  to  the  house  with  the  sad 
tidings. 

Grandfather    could    scarcely  believe    my  story,  and 


I YNX-HUNTING.  141 

went  hastily  down.  He  had  taken  so  much  pains  to 
procure  them,  that  it  was  a  bitter  disappointment. 

"No,  no,"  said  he,  gazing  sorrowfully  upon  his  dead 
favorites ;  "  not  wolves'  work :  they  tear  and  mangle." 

"  Perhaps  it  was  a  bear,"  said  Judson  Edwards  (the 
Edwardses  owned  the  farm  above),  who  had  run  to  the 
pasture  with  us. 

"  Not  a  bear,  either.  A  bear  wouldn't  have  killed  more 
than  one  or  two  at  a  time ;  and  you  would  have  seen  the 
pelt  taken  off,  and  rolled  up  as  nicely  as  a  butcher  could 
have  done  it.  It  was  some  creature  of  the  cat  kind.  It 
ought  to  be  destroyed,  or  it  will  kill  all  the  sheep  in  the 
neighborhood." 

"Might  leave  one  of  the  dead  sheep  here  over 
night,  and  we'll  come  and  watch  for  him,"  suggested 
the  quick-witted  Jud. 

"Yes;  we  can  do  that,"  said  grandfather.  "I  have 
no  doubt  the  creature  will  be  back  as  soon  as  it  is  dark. 
Load  your  guns ;  put  in  a  good  grist  of  heavy  shot : 
and,  if  he  does  come  back,  don't  fail  to  kill  him." 

As  soon  as  it  was  fairly  dark,  Jud  and  I  sallied  out 
with  our  old  "  flint-lock "  guns  well  charged,  and,  lying 
down  behind  an  old  log  seven  or  eight  rods  from  the 
dead  sheep,  began  our  vigils. 

An  hour  passed.  It  had  grown  dark.  Down  by  the 
cliff  we  could  still  distinguish  the  white  fleece ;  and  we 
kept  our  eyes  on  it. 

"Isn't  there  something  there  ?"  whispered  Jud  at 
length.  "  Look  sharp  ! " 

A  dark  object  seemed  occasionally  to  come  between 
us  and  the  white  wool ;  and  by  an^  by  wo  heard  a  sort 
of  craun^hing  noise,  as  if  bones  were  being  gnawed. 


142  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  He's  there ! "  muttered  Jud.     "  Let's  fire  !  " 

Taking  as  good  aim  as  we  could  over  the  log,  we 
blazed  away. 

A  growl  followed  the  reports;  and  the  dark  form 
glided  off  toward  the  crag.  A  moment  later,  we  heard 
the  boughs  of  the  pine  rustle  ;  and  there  was  a  scratch- 
ing noise,  as  if  the  creature  were  descending  the  trunk. 

"  We  didn't  hit  him  !  "  shouted  Jud.  "  He's  gone 
down  the  rocks  by  the  tree ! " 

We  ran  up  as  near  as  we  dared  to  get ;  but  there  was 
nothing  to  be  seen  or  heard  now. 

"He  has  a  den  down  among  the  rocks,  probably," 
said  grandfather,  on  hearing  the  result  of  our  watch. 

The  next  morning,  we  all  went  down  to  reconnoitre. 
The  carcass  had  been  nearly  devoured  during  the 
night :  the  beast  had  probably  returned  to  eat  it  after 
we  had  gone  home.  There  were  no  signs  of  a  den, 
though,  from  the  top  of  the  cliff.  We  could  not  see 
over  the  cliff  very  well,  it  was  so  nearly  perpendicular: 
but  the  top  of  the  pine  looked  as  if  something  had 
jumped  into  it ;  and  there  were  scratches  up  and  down 
the  trunk. 

"  He  has  a  den  down  there  somewhere,"  said  grand- 
father. te  Strong  place  too." 

A  strong  place  indeed.  No  person  would  want  to 
venture  down  over  those  ragged  rocks  after  him,  cer- 
tainly. That  afternoon,  Jud  and  I  went  round  the  crag 
down  to  the  pond. 

Old  Hughy  Watson,  who  used  to  fish  and  trap  about 
there,  had  a  canoe,  made  from  a  pine-log,  —  a  "  dug-out " 
he  called  it,  —  hitched  to  an  ash-stump  not  far  off.  Get- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  143 

ting  into  tins,  we  paddled  opposite  the  "Fall-off"  to  see 
if  we  could  discover  the  den.  The  water  was  very 
black  and  deep  there,  and  the  cliff  seemed  to  overhang 
the  pond.  The  shelf  on  which  the  pine  grew  was  fully 
a  hundred  feet  from  the  water ;  and  the  tree  itself  looked 
like  a  little  sapling.  But,  on  getting  within  ten  or  a 
dozen  rods  of  the  side,  we  discerned  a  fissure,  cr  hole,  a 
few  yards  from  the  foot  of  the  pine. 

"  That  must  be  the  mouth  of  the  den,"  said  Jud,  — 
"  the  place  where  he  goes  in.  He  stays  there  days,  and 
comes  out  nights  to  prowl  about." 

We  had  stopped  paddling ;  and,  while  we  were  look- 
ing up  to  the  rocks,  a  large  gray  creature  crept  out  of 
the  hole,  and,  walking  cautiously  along  the  shelf,  sharp- 
ened its  claws  in  the  trunk  of  the  pine,  stretched,  ana 
then  crouched  down  in  the  sun. 

We  had  taken  our  guns ;  but  it  was  much  too  far  and 
too  high  to  hit  him. 

"  Let's  fire,  though,"  said  Jud. 

Aiming  out  of  the  stern  of  the  canoe,  we  let  another 
dose  of  shot  fly  at  him,  and  heard  it  rattle  on  the  rocks. 
The  animal  jumped  up,  spit  like  a  cat,  and  crawled 
hastily  back  into  the  fissure. 

"  Spoiled  his  nap,  anyhow,"  said  Jud.  "  Tell  you 
what  we  can  do,  though,"  continued  he  as  we  paddled 
back  along.  "  We  can  borrow  old  Hughy's  bear-trap, 
and  set  it  at  the  top  of  the  crag,  at  the  place  where  he 
jumps  out  of  the  pine." 

Hughy  was  quite  willing  to  lend  us  his  trap  when  he 
heard  what  a  loss  grandfather  had  met  with.  It  was  a 
monstrous  thing,  weighing  seventy  or  eighty  pounds- 


144  LYNX-HUNTING. 

the  jaws  were  armed  with  large,  sharp  teeth,  which 
matched  together;  and  the  springs  were  so  stiff,  that 
even  Hughy  had  to  use  a  lever  to  bend  them  into  place 
when  he  set  it.  Putting  it  on  a  stout  pole  between  us, 
we  tugged  it  down  to  the  ledge ;  and,  using  the  pole  for 
a  lever,  managed,  after  a  great  deal  of  prying,  to  set  it. 
Then  we  chained  it  to  the  root  of  a  stump,  placing  it  in 
such  a  way,  that,  when  the  creature  jumped  from  the 
top  of  the  pine  to  the  rocks,  he  would  be  likely  to  jump 
into  it. 

"  Once  let  him  get  his  paw  in  there,"  said  Jud,  "  and 
he'll  have  to  wait  and  settle  his  mutton-bill." 

The  next  morning,  we  ran  down  in  expectation  of  find- 
ing a  prisoner ;  but  we  found  the  trap  just  as  we  had 
placed  it.  It  was  evident  that  the  beast  had  been  out 
of  his  den,  though;  for  the  carcass  was  nearly  all  de- 
voured. He  had  dined,  and  gone  back.  He  probably 
couldn't  see  any  good  reason  for  jumping  into  the  trap, 
as  long  as  he  could  jump  over  it. 

We  now  changed  the  position  of  the  trap,  and  cov- 
ered it  with  dry  grass  to  conceal  it  from  sight.  During 
the  night,  he  finished  the  mutton,  but  did  not  condescend 
to  step  into  the  trap.  He  must  have  taken  a  long  leap 
aside. 

"I  do  believe  he  will  outwit  us,  after  all,"  said  Jud, 
peeping  over  into  the  abyss.  "  If  we  could  only  set  the 
trap  down  there  on  that  shelf  at  the  foot  of  the  tree,  he 
would  have  to  go  over  it  then,  it's  so  narrow  there." 

"  Yes ;  but  how  are  we  to  get  the  trap  down  there  ?  " 
was  my  query. 

"  We  can  let  it  down  with  a  rope,  and  hitch  the  rope 


LYNX-HUNTING.  145 

up  here  at  the  top.  If  he  gets  into  it,  we  can  draw  him 
up." 

"  It  would  take  a  long  rope,  and  a  strong  one  too." 

"  Yes.  That  one  on  the  old  '  tackle  and  fall '  would 
do :  that's  both  long  and  strong." 

We  got  the  rope,  and,  looping  one  end  of  it  round 
che  stump,  tied  the  other  to  the  trap,  all  set  as  it  was, 
and,  easing  it  over  the  edge,  let  it  slide  down  the  rocks. 
But  it  kept  springing.  We  had  to  draw  it  up  and 
reset  it  half  a  dozen  times.  Finally,  however,  we  got  it 
safely  lodged  on  the  shelf  near  the  foot  of  the  pine. 

"  Have  hard  work  to  jump  by  that,"  said  Jud.  "  Ho 
has  to  walk  pretty  cautiously  along  that  shelf." 

Fastening  the  rope  securely  at  the  top,  we  left  it  for 
night  to  decide. 

Early  the  next  morning,  a  frightful  snarling  and 
growling  began  to  be  heard  even  at  the  house;  and, 
running  hastily  down  through  the  pasture,  we  beheld 
the  upper  end  of  the  rope  convulsed  by  frantic  jerks 
from  below. 

"  We  have  a  bite  at  last,  I  guess,"  laughed  Jud. 

Peering  over,  we  could  just  see  him,  —  a  great  fierce- 
looking  creature,  caught  by  one  foot,  and  dangling  over 
the  edge  of  the  shelf.  No  wonder  he  snarled ! 

Grandfather  followed  us  down. 

"  Draw  him  up,  boys,"  said  he  after  taking  a  look  over. 
"  We  will  put  the  poor  bru^e  out  of  his  agony  as  soon 
as  we  can.  You  draw  him  up,  and  I'll  stand  ready  to 
shoot  him  as  soon  as  he  is  in  sight." 

It  was  about  as  much  as  we  could  do ;  but,  tugging 
hard,  we  slowly  pulled  up  the  rope.  The  growls  filled 
10 


146  IA  NX-HUNTING. 

the  air,  and,  resounding  from  the  rocks,  echoed  across 
the  pond.  He  didn't  like  to  come,  and  was  constantly 
springing  and  jerking. 

Of  course  we  were  anxious  to  have  the  shooting  part 
done  before  he  arrived  at  the  top  of  the  cliff. 

"  Now,  be  sure  to  hit  him,  grandfather,"  said  Jud ; 
"because  he  might  chew  us  up  if  you  don't ! " 

"  Yes,  yes  !     Pull  steady  ! " 

But,  while  still  a  few  yards  from  the  top,  the  creature 
caught  his  claws  into  a  crevice,  and,  with  a  sudden  leap 
upward,  showed  his  wild,  fierce  face  over  the  edge. 
Seized  with  a  panic,  we  let  go  the  rope,  and  down  he 
went.  Trap  and  beast  together,  falling  fifty  feet,  were 
too  much  for  the  rope  :  it  snapped.  A  wild  yell  rang 
up.  We  heard  the  trap  clanking  and  clattering  down 
the  rocks,  and  anon  a  sullen  plunge  far  below,  and  saw 
the  widening  ripples  chase  each  other  out  into  the  pond. 

Going  round,  and  down  to  the  shore,  we  took  the  canoe, 
and  paddled  to  the  spot.  The  broken  end  of  the  rope 
was  still  floating.  Taking  hold  of  it,  we  drew  up  the 
trap,  and  with  it  the  animal,  —  drowned,  of  course. 

That  was  a  memorable  incident  for  us  boys.  I  well 
recollect  how  the  creature  looked,  and  at  once  identified 
it  from  memory  as  of  the  same  species  with  the  one  we 
had  just  killed. 

After  dinner  we  went  down  the  lake  to  see  to  the 
other  traps,  the  Doctor  remaining  to  "find  out  how 
Robert  P enfold  came  out ; "  for  the  adventure  of  the 
ftreuoon  had  interrupted  his  novel-reading. 

We  found  the  last  of  the  three  otters  in  the  trap 
under  the  bank.  But  this  one  had  not  drowned  :  it  had 


LYNX-HUN1ING.  147 

crawled  up  the  icy  bank  far  enough  to  get  its  head 
above  water.  Wash  shot  it.  After  taking  off  its  skin, 
we  went  out  to  the  "hole"  to  fish.  The  thaw  had 
opened  it  afresh.  Possibly  it  had  served  as  an  air-hole 
during  the  previous  evening. 

Two  hours  of  angling  gave  us  a  trout  and  two  small 
pickerel  only;  in  all,  about  five  pounds.  We  wondered 
whether  the  subteraqueous  groanings  had  affrighted  the 
fish. 

On  getting  up  to  camp,  we  found  the  Doctor  gone. 
There  lay  his  novel  on  the  hemlock.  He  had  probably 
finished  it,  and  gone  out  for  a  walk.  It  was  near  sunset. 
We  began  to  prepare  supper. 

On  a  sudden  the  Doctor  came  in,  brimful  of  excite- 
ment. 

"  Well,  I  never!  "  he  exclaimed.    "  Drollest  thing  !  " 

"  Why,  what  is  it,  Doctor  ?  "  we  all  demanded. 

"  Just  you  come  out  here  to  the  swamp  !  "  cried  the 
Doctor.  "Come  quick!"  And,  catching  up  one  of  the 
blankets,  he  strode  off  again.  The  spider  was  hastily 
set  aside.  We  resumed  our  snow-shoes,  and  followed 
after  him  as  fast  as  possible ;  but  he  had  gained  quite 
a  start.  We  did  not  come  up  with  him  till  he  had 
entered  among  the  cedars,  and  was  coming  out  upon  one 
of  the  open  holes,  which  looked  still  broader  and  mud- 
dier since  the  thaw.  On  the  very  edge  where  the  icy 
snow  bordered  the  black  muck,  the  Doctor  drew  up. 
"  There !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  For  pity's  sake,  just  look 
here  !  "  pointing  to  the  mud.  "  Them's  what  gets  me  ! 
Little  baby's  feet !  " 

We  all  stared.     Sure  enough,  there  in  the  mud  were 


148  LYNX-HUNTING. 

some  little  footprints  not  more  than  three  or  four  inches 
long,  toes  and  all,  as  plain  as  could  be,  patted  down  into 
the  soft  muck.  Some  little  foot  had  evidently  run  along 
there  not  many  minutes  ago.  "  Just  made  too  !  "  con- 
tinued the  Doctor.  Then,  after  a  hurried  glance  around, 
he  stooped  to  examine  them.  Wash  winked  to  me,  then 
to  Raed  and  Wade,  who  were  regarding  us  with  curious 
looks.  We  all  choked  down  a  great  grin.  Unless  we 
were  much  mistaken,  we  had  a  "  soft  thing "  on  the 
Doctor.  "  Well,  if  this  don't  beat  the  Dutch  ! "  re- 
sumed the  Doctor,  standing  back  a  step.  "  There  isn't 
a  house  within  fifteen  miles,  that  I  know  of.  How  the 
little  thing  ever  got  up  here  is  more  than  I  can  guess ; 
but  (stooping  down  again)  it's  a  baby's  foot  fast 
enough.'' 

"  It  may  be  that  an  Indian  family  is  camping  about 
here,  not  far  off,"  suggested  the  hypocritical  Wash. 
"Perhaps  this  is  a  little  pappoose." 

"  Barefooted  too,"  observed  Wade  ;  "  or  else  nothing 
but  a  very  thin  moccason.  Look  at  those  little  toe- 
marks  !  Can't  be  over  a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years 
old." 

"  Poor  little  thing,  it  must  be  lost !  "  remarked  the 
Doctor  reflectively,  and  with  a  touch  of  feeling  which 
did  him  credit,  but  came  near  making  us  shout  with 
suppressed  merriment.  "And,  boys,"  cried  he  with 
sudden  gravity,  "  we  must  try  to  hunt  it  up.  Poor 
baby,  here  all  alone  in  the  dark  swamp  !  He  can't  be 
far  off,  either." 

*  If  it's  a  lost  child,  we  certainly  ought  to  hunt  it  up. 
said  Kaed. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  149 

"  And,  if  it's  a  little  pappoose,  I  should  like  to  see  it," 
remarked  Wade. 

"  Mere  common  humanity  demands  that  we  find  the 
lost  baby"  Wash  affirmed. 

So  we  all  hegan  to  search  along  the  borders  of  the 
muck-hole  with  affected  zeal;  but  the  Doctor  was  in 
earnest. 

"  Ah  !  there's  where  he  stopped  to  play  in  the  mud. 
See  where  his  little  fingers  clawed  it  up  there  ! "  said  he. 
"  And  here's  where  he  clambered  up  on  to  the  snow ;  and 
out  here  is  another  track.  He's  left  the  hole,  and  gone 
off  into  the  woods." 

Here  and  there  we  could  still  see  the  little  footprints 
close  together  on  the  damp  snow  as  we  hurried  on. 

"  See  where  he  broke  off  those  tender  sprouts !  "  Wash 
noticed.  "  Little  cub !  Isn't  it  curious  ?  I  wonder 
where  his  mother  is.  I've  heard  of  children's  being  car- 
ried off  by  wild  beasts,  and  so  growing  up  to  make 
'wild  men.'  Perhaps  we've  stumbled  upon  an  exam- 
ple ! " 

"Like  enough,"  said  the  Doctor. 

Luckily  it  was  getting  too  dark  for  him  to  see  our 
faces. 

"  I  declare,  he  walks  well  for  a  little  one  ! "  said  Wade 
after  a  while.  "  Why,  we've  come  as  much  as  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  muck -hole  !  " 

A  few  moments  after,  we  came  out  to  a  large  yellow 
birch-tree,  or  rather  stub ;  for  it  was  all  decayed,  and  evi- 
dently hollow,  having  a  great  open  hole  in  the  trunk  at 
the  roots.  The  little  foot-marks  led  directly  toward? 
this  hole. 


150  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  You  don't  suppose  he's  crawled  into  that  hole,  do 
you  ?  "  asked  the  Doctor.  "  I  declare,  he  has !  "  continued 
he,  pointing  to  a  track  in  the  wet  punk  within  the  aper- 
ture. <  Gone  in  there,  as  I  live  ! " 

We  all  took  a  look. 

The  inside  of  the  tree  had  rotted  away;  and  the  hol- 
low cavity  extended  both  upward  and  downward  into 
the  root  beneath  the  ground,  — a  dark  hole  indeed. 

"Fell  in  there,  I'm  afraid!"  exclaimed  the  Doctor. 
"  Baby,  little  chuck  !  are  you  down  there  ?  Likely  as 
anyway  there's  water  at  the  bottom  !  If  it  weren't  so 
dark  down  there  !  —  Got  any  matches,  boys  ?  Let's 
make  a  torch." 

I  pulled  off  a  crispy  roll  of  the  curled  bark,  and,  light- 
ing it,  let  it  down  into  the  opening.  The  Doctor  had 
not  thought  of  looking  up  the  hollow  trunk.  Nobody 
would  expect  a  baby  to  climb  a  tree,  of  course.  But,  the 
moment  we  put  in  the  fire,  there  was  a  great  scrambling 
overhead  on  the  inside  ;  and  a  shower  of  dust  and  punk 
came  rattling  down. 

"  Gracious ! "  exclaimed  the  Doctor.  "  The  little  ras- 
cal is  up,  instead  of  down  !  I  don't  believe  it  is  a  child. 
But  that  is  a  baby's  foot  fast  enough,"  said  he,  stepping 
back,  and  again  examining  the  track.  "  Yes,  little  brat ! 
Scared,  I  suppose.  How  he  can  climb !  They  say  little 
babies  can  swim  too.  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  they  did 
make  '  wild  men  '  in  just  this  way." 

Then,  in  a  coaxing  voice,  "  Come,  baby,  come  down. 
We  won't  hurt  you.  Oh,  no!  we'll  take  you  to  your 
mother." 

But  the  baby  gave  no  indications  of  coming  down; 


LYNX-HUNTING.  151 

and,  despite  the  dust  which  filled  the  aperture,  the  Doc- 
tor again  poked  in  his  head  to  see  if  he  couldn't  discern 
him. 

"  Light  another  piece  of  bark,  Kit,"  said  he,  "  and  let 
me  take  it.  I  can  see  something  up  there ;  but  I'll  be 
skinned  if  it  looks  like  a  baby !  " 

I  got  the  bark ;  and,  putting  it  on  the  end  of  a  stick, 
we  thrust  it  up  the  hollow,  and  saw,  up  some  ten  or 
twelve  feet,  not  exactly  a  baby,  but  a  big  raccoon,  peer- 
ing cautiously  down,  with  his  visage  turned  askew  as  if 
he  thought  it  a  more  than  commonly  good  joke. 

"  Sold  !  "  ejaculated  the  Doctor,  pulling  out  his  head, 
and  gazing  comically  at  the  little  track.  "  Well,  I  never 
knew  that  before  !  —  a  raccoon  makes  a  track  just  like  a 
little  child's  !  Well,  live  and  learn.  I've  been  com- 
pletely '  done  for/  Go  for  me,  boys  !  I  won't  say  a 
word  !  Go  for  me  as  much  as  you're  a  mind  to  !  But, 
for  pity's  sake,  don't  tell  of  this  in  town,  boys,"  he 
added  pathetically  a  moment  later.  "  ?Twould  be  the 
ruination  of  me.  Confound  that  raccoon !  Letfs  give 
it  to  him  !  " 

It  was  hard  to  see  wherein  the  'coon  was  to  blame, 
and  harder  still  to  get  at  him. 

"  Might  cut  down  the  tree,"  Wash  suggested. 

But  the  axe  was  back  at  the  camp. 

"  Perhaps  we  could  smoke  him  out,"  said  Kaed. 

Several  of  the  bark-rolls  were  lighted,  and  placed  in 
the  cavity. 

But  it  would  have  taken  a  long  time  to  smoke  him 
out  at  that  rate,  had  not  the  inside  of  the  tree  been  dry 
It  caught  fire  from  the  torches,  and  the  flames  ran  up- 


152  LYNX-HUNTING. 

ward.  In  a  moment,  the  whole  in£i  le  of  the  tree  waa 
ablaze.  Flame  and  smoke  spouted  out  from  the  old 
knot-holes  and  at  the  top.  It  drew  like  a  chimney. 

"  Gooduess !  "  exclaimed  Wash.  "  Hear  it  roar  ! 
'Coony  can't  stand  that  long,  I  know  I  " 

And  he  didn't.  Very  soon  we  heard  something  drop; 
and  out  rolled  the  'coon  at  the  bottom  of  the  stump, 
coiled  up  like  a  ball.  He  was  well  singed,  and  apparent- 
ly suffocated. 

I  did  not  believe  he  was  dead,  however ;  and,  cutting 
some  limber  birch-withs,  we  proceeded  to  tie  his  legs 
before  he  came  to  his  breath  again.  One  glance  at  his 
little,  slim  black  feet,  told  the  whole  story  about  the 
baby-tracks. 

We  slung  him  across  a  pole,  and  started  for  camp. 
He  soon  began  to  realize  his  situation,  and  wriggled 
about  prodigiously.  We  determined  to  keep  him  a  few 
days  at  least ;  and,  after  reaching  camp,  put  a  collar  of 
birch-withs  about  his  neck,  and  chained  him  with  one 
of  the  other  trap-chains  to  a  poplar-sapling  a  few  rods 
from  the  fire. 

It  was  past  eight  before  we  could  prepare  supper;  but 
the  fun  we  had  had  at  the  Doctor's  expense  was  oui 
recompense.  He  bore  it  all  with  an  occasional  shrug. 

Along  in  the  night,  a  prodigious  uproar  —  growling, 
barking,  and  yelping  —  awoke  us.  Grip  had  got  loose, 
and  fallen  tooth  and  nail  upon  the  Doctor's  baby.  Be- 
fore we  got  out,  the  hound  had  throttled  it ;  though, 
judging  from  the  noise,  there  must  have  been  a  pretty 
sharp  fight.  Indeed,  a  raccoon  is  often  found  fully  a 
match  for  a  smart  dog. 


LYNX-HUNTING. 


The  circumstance  recalled  a  fight  I  once  witnessed 
between  a  fisher  and  a  raccoon. 

Some  years  ago,  while  in  the  northern  part  of  Maine, 
I  spent  the  month  of  September,  and  a  portion  of  Octo- 
ber, at  a  "  hay-farm  "  on  the  borders  of  Chamberlain 
Lake,  —  Lake  Apmoogenegamook,  the  Indians  used  to 
call  it.  The  whole  region  was  an  almost  unbroken  wil- 
derness. Game  was  plenty  ;  and,  by  way  of  recreation 
from  my  duties  as  "  surveyor,'7  I  had  set  up  a  "  line  of 
traps  "  for  mink  and  sable  along  a  rapid,  noisy  stream 
called  "  Bear  Brook,"  which  comes  down  into  the  lake 
through  a  gorge  between  two  high,  spruce-clad  moun- 
tains. 

Huge  bowlders  had  rolled  down  the  sides,  and  lay 
piled  along  the  bed  of  the  gorge.  The  brook,  which 
was  the  outlet  of  a  small  pond  pent  up  among  the 
ridges  above,  foamed  and  roared,  and  gurgled  down 
among  rocks  shaded  by  thick  black  spruces  which 
leaned  out  from  the  sides  of  the  ravine. 

It  was  a  wild  place.  I  had  stumbled  upon  it  one 
afternoon  some  weeks  before,  and  knew  it  must  be  good 
trapping-ground:  for  the  rocks,  and  the  clear,  black 
pools,  in  short,  the  whole  place,  had  that  peculiar  fishy 
smell  which  bespoke  an  abundance  of  trout  ;  and,  where 
trout  abound,  there  are  sure  to  be  mink. 

My  traps  were  of  that  sort  which  hunters  call  "  figure- 
four  "  traps,  —  made  of  stakes  and  poles,  with  a  figure- 
four  spring.  Perhaps  some  of  our  boy-  readers  may  have 
caught  squirrels  in  that  way.  For  bait,  I  used  trout 
from  the  brook.  I  carried  my  hook  and  line  with  me, 
and,  after  setting  a  trap,  threw  in  my  hook,  and  pulled 


154  LYNX-HUNTING. 

out  trout  enough  o  bait  it.  My  line  extended  about  a 
mile  up  the  gorgr,  and  comprised  some  twenty-five  or 
thirty  traps. 

After  setting  them,  I  shot  a  number  of  red  squirrels 
for  a  "drag,"  and  thus  connected  the  traps  together. 
Perhaps  I  should  explain  that  a  drag  is  a  bundle  of 
squirrels  or  partridges  newly  killed,  and  from  which  the 
blood  is  dripping,  which  are  dragged  along  by  a  with 
from  trap  to  trap  to  make  a  trail  and  scent,  so  that  the 
mink  and  sable  will  follow  it. 

It  is  customary  to  visit  mink-traps  once  in  two  or 
three  days ;  but,  as  I  had  plenty  of  time  just  then,  I 
went  to  mine  every  forenoon. 

During  the  first  week  after  setting  them,  I  had  excel- 
lent luck.  I  caught  eleven  mink  and  three  sable,  — 
about  fifty  dollars'  worth,  as  I  reckoned  it.  My  hopes  of 
making  a  small  fortune  in  the  fur-business  were  very 
sanguine,  until,  one  morning,  I  found  every  trap  torn  up. 
The  poles  and  stakes  were  scattered  over  the  ground ; 
spindles  were  broken  to  pieces ;  and,  at  one  or  two  places 
where  there  had  been  a  mink  in  the  trap,  the  head,  and 
bits  of  fur,  were  lying  about,  as  if  it  had  been  devoured. 

At  first,  I  thought  that  perhaps  some  fellow  who  had 
intended  to  trap  there  had  done  the  mischief,  to  drive 
me  away  (a  very  common  trick  among  rival  trappers)  ; 
but,  when  I  saw  that  the  mink  had  been  torn  to  pieces, 
I  knew  the  destruction  was  the  work  of  some  animal,  — 
a  fisher,  most  likely,  or,  as  some  call  it,  a  "black-cat." 

I  had  never  yet  seen  one  of  these  creatures,  but  had 
often  heard  hunters  anl  trappers  tell  what  pests  they 
were,  —  following  them  m  their  rounds,  robbing  and 


LYNX-HUNTING.  155 

tearing  up  their  traps  almost  as  rapidly  as  they  could 
set  them. 

Well,  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  set  the  traps  again  ; 
a  task  which  I  did  in  the  course  of  the  day,  really  hop- 
ing the  beast  had  merely  paid  the  place  a  transient  visit, 
and  gone  on  upon  his  wanderings. 

But  the  next  morning  showed  my  hopes  were  vain ; 
for  he  had  "gone  through"  my  line  again,  and  every  trap 
was  upset.  It  really  seemed  as  if  the  "varmint"  had 
taken  a  malicious  delight  in  tearing  them  to  pieces.  At 
one  of  the  traps,  a  fine  sable  had  been  caught;  and,  as  if 
for  very  mischief,  the  marauder  had  torn  the  beautiful 
skin,  which  was  worth  six  or  seven  dollars,  to  shreds. 

Surely,  if  there  is  a  business  in  the  world  that  de- 
mands patience  and  perseverance,  it  is  trapping :  at 
least,  it  took  about  all  I  could  summon  to  go  resignedly 
to  work,  make  new  spindles,  catch  fresh  bait,  and  sefc 
the  traps  again,  especially  with  the  prospect  of  having 
the  same  task  to  perform  the  next  morning. 

I  went  at  it,  however,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  had  them 
all  reset  save  one  (the  upper  one),  where  the  sable  had 
been  caught;  when,  on  approaching  it,  through  the  thick 
spruces  I  saw  a  large  raccoon  gnawing  the  sable's  head. 
Seeing  me  at  the  same  instant,  he  caught  up  the  head, 
and,  before  I  could  unsling  my  gun,  scuttled  away  out 
of  sight. 

Was  it  possible  that  a  'coon  had  been  doing  all  this 
mischief?  I  knew  them  to  be  adepts  at  a  variety  of 
woods'  tricks,  but  had  never  heard  of  their  robbing 
traps  before.  Here  was  one  caught  gnawing  a  sable's 
head  in  the  vicinity  of  the  broken  traps.  Circumstan- 
tial eviderce,  at  least,  was  strong  against  him. 


156  LYNX-HTJNTIKG. 

I  determined  to  watch  —  that  trap  at  least. 

Going  over  to  our  camp  on  the  lake,  I  took  a  hasty 
lunch,  and,  putting  a  fresh  charge  into  iny  gun,  went 
back  to  the  ravine.  A  few  rods  from  the  place  where  I 
had  surprised  the  'coon,  there  was  a  thick  clump  of  low 
spruces.  Here  I  hid  myself,  and  began  my  watch. 

The  afternoon  dragged  away.  Crows  and  hawks 
cawed  and  screamed ;  kingfishers  and  squirrels  chick- 
ered  and  chirred:  but  no  animal  came  near  the  trap. 
The  sun  was  setting  behind  the  high  black  mountain, 
and  twilight  began  to  dim  the  narrow  valley. 

Thinking  I  had  had  my  labor  for  my  pains,  I  was 
about  crawling  out  of  my  hiding-place,  when  a  twig 
snapped  in  the  direction  of  the  traps;  and,  turning 
quickly,  I  saw  the  'coon  coming  up  the  bank  of  the 
brook,  —  the  same  one,  I  was  sure,  that  I  had  seen 
before,  because  of  its  unusual  size. 

With  a  glance  around  to  see  that  there  was  no  dan- 
ger near,  he  ambled  along  to  the  spot  where  the  sable's 
head  had  been,  and  began  sniffing  at  the  shreds  and 
bits  of  fur  which  lay  about.  Wishing  to  see  if  he 
would  touch  the  trap,  I  did  not  stir,  but  watched  his 
movements. 

After  picking  up  the  bits  of  skin,  he  walked  round 
the  trap  several  times,  with  his  queer,  quizzical  face 
askew,  examining  it.  Then,  happening  to  scent  one  of 
the  sable's  legs  which  lay  at  a  little  distance,  he  ran  to 
it,  and  began  to  eat  it.  I  could  hear  his  sharp  teeth 
upon  the  bones.  Suddenly  he  stopped,  listened,  then 
growled.  Very  much  to  my  surprise,  there  was  an 
answering  growl ;  then  another  and  another  response. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  157 

In  a  moment  more,  from  behind  a  great  rock  in  the 
bank  there  stole  out  a  large  black  animal,  an  object  of 
the  'coon's  utter  abhorrence  evidently. 

Fresh  growls  greeted  the  appearance  of  the  intruder, 
who  came  stealthily  forward.  He  was  a  wicked-looking 
fellow,  and  had,  evidently,  hostile  intentions. 

The  'coon  rose  to  his  feet,  lifting  his  back  like  a  bear 
or  a  cat,  and  growling  all  the  while.  The  new-comer 
crouched  almost  to  the  earth,  but  continued  to  steal  up 
to  the  'coon  until  within  a  yard  or  two. 

There  they  stood,  facing  each  other,  getting  more 
angry  every  moment ;  and  evidently  intended  to  have 
a  big  "  set-to."  I  had  no  wish  to  interfere,  and  was  con- 
tented to  remain  a  spectator.  The  two  thieves  might 
settle  their  quarrels  between  themselves.  I  wasn't  at  all 
certain  to  which  of  them  I  stood  indebted  for  my  extra 
labor,  and  concluded  to  keep  my  charge  of  shot  for 
whichever  of  them  survived  the  fray. 

The  growls  rose  to  shrieks;  the  fisher  —  for  such  I 
judged  it  to  be  — wriggling  his  black  tail,  and  the  'coon 
getting  his  back  still  higher.  Then  came  a  sudden 
grab  quick  as  a  flash,  and  a  prodigious  scuffle.  Over 
and  over  they  rolled,  grappling  and  tearing.  Now  the 
gray  tail  would  whisk  up  in  sight,  then  the  black  one. 
The  fur  flew  ;  and  that  strong,  disagreeable  odor  some- 
times noticed  when  a  cat  spits  was  wafted  out  to  my 
hiding-place. 

It  was  hard  to  tell  which  was  the  better  fighter.  Gray 
fur  and  black  fur  seemed  to  be  getting  torn  out  in  about 
equal  snatches.  Suddenly  the  'coon  got  away  from  his 
antagonist,  and,  running  to  the  foot  of  a  great  spruce- 


158  LYNX-HUNTING. 

tree  standing  near,  went  like  a  dart  up  the  trunk  to  the 
lower  limbs.  There  he  faced  about. 

The  fisher  followed  to  the  tree,  and  looked  up.  He 
saw  his  late  foe,  growled,  and  then  began  to  climb  after 
him.  He  was  not  so  good  a  climber  as  the  'coon,  but 
scratched  his  way  up  with  true  weasel  determination. 
The  moment  he  came  within  reach,  the  raccoon  jumped 
at  him,  regardless  of  the  height  from  the  ground,  and 
fastened  upon  his  back.  The  shock  caused  the  fisher  to 
lose  his  hold ;  and  down  both  animals  dropped  with  tre- 
mendous force,  —  sufficient  to  knock  the  breath  out  of 
both  of  them,  I  thought.  But  they  clung  to  each  other, 
and  dug  and  bit  with  the  fury  of  maniacs. 

Presently  the  'coon  broke  away  again,  and  once  more 
ran  to  the  tree,  —  this  time  going  up  its  trunk,  out  of 
sight,  among  the  branches  at  the  very  top.  It  looked  as 
if  he  was  getting  about  all  the  fight  he  cared  to  have. 

Not  so  with  the  big  weasel.  He  instantly  followed 
his  antagonist,  clumsily  but  surely  clawing  his  way  up 
the  trunk.  It  took  him  some  time  to  reach  the  top;  but 
he  got  there  at  last.  Another  grapple  ensued  among 
the  very  topmost  boughs ;  and  they  both  came  tumbling 
to  the  ground,  catching  at  the  limbs  as  they  fell :  but, 
grappling  afresh,  they  rolled  down  the  steep  bank  to  the 
edge  of  the  water. 

Meanwhile  it  had  grown  so  dark,  that  I  could  but  just 
see  their  writhing  forms.  The  growling,  grappling 
sound  continued,  however;  and  I  could  hear  them  splash 
in  the  water.  Then  there  came  a  lull.  One  or  the  other 
had  "given  in,"  I  felt  sure.  Which  was  the  victor? 

Cocking  my  gun,  I  crept  to  the  bank.     As  nearly  as 


LYNX-HUNTING.  159 

I  could  make  out  the  situation,  the  fisher  was  holding 
the  'coon  by  the  throat. 

I  took  a  step  forward.  A  twig  snapped  -ander  my 
foot.  Instantlj7  a  pair  of  fiery  eyes  glared  up  at  me  in 
the  gloom  ;  and,  with  a  harsh  snarl,  the  fisher  raised 
himself.  But  the  'coon  didn't  stir :  he  was  dead. 

It  was  almost  too  bad  to  shoot  the  victor  of  so  des- 
perate a  fight;  but,  thinking  of  my  traps,  I  hardened 
my  heart,  and  fired.  The  fisher  reared  up,  fell  over, 
then,  recovering  its  legs,  leaped  at  me  with  all  the 
ferocity  of  its  blood-thirsty  race.  But  the  heavy  buck- 
shot had  surely  done  its  work ;  and,  with  another  attempt 
to  spring  at  me,  the  animal  fell  back  dead. 

I  had  no  more  trouble  with  my  traps. 


NINTH  DAY. 

Some  Melancholy  Cries  at  a  Distance.  —  More  Snow.  —  A  Brisk 
Chase  after  a  Drove  of  Lynxes.  —  Two  More  shot.  —  A  Discov- 
ery. —  Beaver.  —  Beaver-Houses  under  the  Snow.  —  Raed's  Air- 
Castle.  —  The  Doctor's  Enthusiasm.  —  A  Fisher.  —  Wonderful 
Tenacity  of  Life.  —  An  Anecdote  of  the  Fisher. 

AGAIN  aroused  in  the  night,  by  Wash,  to  hear 
some  of  the  most  melancholy  cries  it  is  possible 
to  imagine.  They  were  at  a  distance,  seemingly  on 
the  mountain-side  beyond  the  swamp.  We  were  unable 
to  distinguish  more  than  the  timbre  of  the  notes,  and 
could  hardly  have  testified  whether  they  were  human  or 
bestial.  At  intervals,  indeed,  they  seemed  fearfully  to 
resemble  certain  quavers  which  some  have  held  to  be 
peculiar  to  womanhood.  E-aed  suggested  that  it  might 
be  "mother  to  the  Doctor's  baby/'  bewailing  the  loss 
of  that  hapless  innocent. 

Some  prowler  was  lamenting.  Grief  and  downright 
broken-heartedness  seemed  to  be  finding  piteous  utter- 
ance in  the  notes  of  woe,  which,  minute  by  minute,  came 
struggling  on  the  still,  dark  air. 

Of  course  I  have  no  need  to  inform  the  reader  what 
ISO 


LYNX-HUNTING.  161 

our  friend  Wash  believed  it  to  be ;  and  he  argued  his 
opinion  from  the  stories  of  "  old  hunters." 

It  might  have  been  a  catamount,  possibly ;  but  I  fancied 
it  as  likely  to  have  been  a  lynx.  It  is  hardly  to  be  sup- 
posed that  the  panther  has  a  monopoly  of  plaintive  cries. 

Such  sounds  in  the  night,  as  I  have  been  before  guilty 
of  remarking,  gives  one  strange,  lonely  sensations. 

It  was  cloudy,  and  had  begun  to  spit  snow.  I  could 
feel  the  icy  little  flakes  hit  on  my  hands  and  face,  and 
hear  them  rattle  inclemently  among  the  frozen  twigs. 
We  went  back  into  our  blankets  for  another  nap. 

It  was  snowing  fast  in  the  morning;  and  the  storm 
continued  till  near  noon.  We  did  not  get  out  —  farther 
than  to  fell  a  thick  yellow-birch  off  eight  or  ten  rods,  in 
the  top  of  which  we  set  two  traps  for  hares  —  till  after 
eleven.  Things  had  a  decidedly  wintry  look, — the  whole 
landscape  immaculately  white,  the  skies  dull  black. 

While  eating  lunch,  we  heard  a  lynx — just  a  short, 
sharp  screech  —  off  not  more  than  a  hundred  rods ;  and, 
untying  Grip,  immediately  set  off  to  hunt  it.  The  hound 
was  in  good  condition,  and  bounded  along  in  an  ecstasy 
of  dog-joy.  His  "flesh-wounds"  were  all  healed  up. 
Even  the  Doctor  "busked  himself"  smartly. 

"Means  to  retrieve  the  laurels  he  lost  last  night," 
Wash  whispered. 

Going  out  in  the  direction  of  the  sound,  we  came 
upon  the  trail  directly,  and  not  only  that  of  a  single 
lynx,  but  of  five  or  six,  apparently.  "  A  whole  drove  of 
?em  !  "  shouted  the  Doctor. 

They  seemed  to  have  gone  along  on  a  frolic ;  all  ra- 
cing and  bounding  on  together,  throwing  up  the  light 
11 


162  LYNX-HUNTING. 

snow   amazingly.     Perhaps  the   screech  we  had   heard 
had  accompanied  some  playful  cuff. 

The  hound  was  laid  on  the  multifold  trail,  and  waded 
off,  baying  lustily.  But  we  could  nearly  keep  up  with 
him  ;  for  the  crust  under  the  recent  snow  broke  beneath 
his  weight.  In  ten  minutes  the  hound  sighted  them, 
and  challenged  excitedly.  We  were  a  little  behind,  and 
did  not  at  once  get  a  glimpse ;  but  we  could  hear  them 
smashing  the  twigs  with  an  occasional  sharp  little  yawl. 
Hurrying  on  with  long  strides,  first  Wash,  then  the  rest 
of  us,  espied  them  through  the  vistas  of  tree-trunks. 
Leaping  and  plunging,  on  they  went,  —  one,  two, 
three,  four,  five  of  them,  —  their  gray  backs  bobbing 
up  and  down.  JTwas  immensely  exciting.  We  fairly 
kept  pace  with  the  hound,  poor  fellow !  who  went  in  to 
his  belly,  and  would  have  gone  deeper,  at  every  spring. 
On  we  went,  or  rather  wallowed ;  and  on  went  the  cats. 
It  was  quite  impossible  to  gain  much  upon  them,  and 
too  far  to  fire,  —  twenty  rods  among  trees.  And  soon 
our  wind  began  to  fail.  The  chase  crept  away  from  us  ; 
but  the  hound  gained  a  little,  we  thought.  From  their 
habit  of  leaping,  the  lynxes  had  an  advantage  in  so 
much  snow.  We  had  little  doubt,  though,  that  they 
would  ultimately  take  to  the  trees ;  and  followed  on.  In 
so  lively  a  chase,  one  soon  gets  over  two  or  three  miles. 
The  trail  had  swerved  off  to  the  north-east,  and  led 
down  among  a  lofty  growth  of  white-ashes  and  maples 
into  a  broad  valley,  along  the  bed  of  which  ran  a  wild, 
black  stream,  which  probably  flowed  into  the  head  of  the 
lake.  Here  and  there,  white  bridges  of  ice  spanned  it ; 
but  much  of  its  course  was  among  rocks,  where  no  ice 


LYNX-HUNTING. 

could  form.  Contrasted  with  the  white  banks,  the 
hoarsely-murmuring  waters  looked  fairly  inky.  The 
farther  bank  rose  more  abruptly,  and  gave  root  to  a  fine 
old  growth  of  hemlock  two  and  even  three  feet  in  diame- 
ter. Cats  and  hound  splashed  through  the  torrent.  Grip 
was  now  close  behind,  not  more  than  twenty  yards  in 
the  rear  of  the  last  one.  They  were  now  all  yawling,  as 
we  could  plainly  hear.  On  a  sudden,  one  of  them  faced 
about,  and  drew  up  its  back,  spitting  like  a  fury.  Grip 
rushed  at  it  undauntedly ;  when  it  as  suddenly  whirled 
about,  and  scratched  up  a  hemlock  like  a  weasel.  Two 
more  also  took  to  the  neighboring  trees.  The  others 
ran  on,  and  were  soon  out  of  sight  up  the  mountain. 
Grip  howled  for  us  just  as  we  were  crossing  the  brook 
below  on  one  of  the  ice-bridges. 

All  three  of  the  cats  were  "  wauling  "  at  a  great  rate. 
It  was  music.  Such  a  din  I  never  heard.  The  three, 
together  with  the  hound's  baying,  did  make  a  most  as- 
tonishing medley  of  sound.  Wade  had  the  rifle ;  and, 
working  up  the  bank  in  sight  of  the  one  that  had  first 
taken  to  tree,  he  shot  it.  The  creature  clung  a  moment 
to  the  limb  on  which  it  had  been  sitting ;  then  dropped 
chunk  into  the  snow,  and  merely  quivered.  A  good 
shot. 

But,  with  the  report,  both  the  others  leaped  out  of 
their  trees,  and  bounded  silently  off.  Wash  fired  one 
barrel  of  the  shot-gun  after  one  of  them,  and  Grip  gave 
chase.  The  other  went  in  an  opposite  direction  nearly. 
The  first  ran  for  forty  or  fifty  rods  up  the  hillside ;  then, 
finding  Grip  at  his  heels,  took  to  a  beech.  Coming  up 
at  length,  Wash  let  drive  the  second  barrel  at  it  but  it 


164  LYNX-HUNTING. 

jumped  out,  and  ran  again,  Grip  after  it.  We  saw 
blood  on  the  snow.  Some  of  the  shot  had  struck  it. 
But  it  went  several  hundred  yards,  the  hound  grabbing 
at  it,  and  both  growling;  then  it  ran  up  a  stooping 
birch  eight  or  ten  feet,  and  faced  about,  head  down,  to 
the  hound.  We  waited  for  Wade,  who  had  stopped  to 
reload  the  rifle.  He  came  up,  and  shot  the  creature ; 
but  it  tore  the  dog  a  little  upon  the  nose,  and  scratched 
one  of  his  ears  open,  when  he  pounced  on  it. 

We  were  pretty  tired,  as  well  as  out  of  breath ;  and 
Grip  was  wet  and  lolling. 

"  Best  to  go  after  the  other  ?  "  Wash  asked. 

We  decided  to  let  him  go,  rather  than  wallow 
another  mile.  Assisted  by  Wade  and  Wash,  I  managed 
to  skin  the  one  we  had  just  shot.  Baed  and  the  Doctor 
went  back  to  perform  the  same  "last  office"  for  the  first 
victim.  Coming  down  along  with  our  skin,  we  found 
them  hard  at  it;  Baed  holding  the  legs  with  averted 
nose,  and  the  Doctor  cutting  away  with  the  sang-froid 
of  an  army  surgeon. 

"  Preliminary  practice,'7  he  remarked,  looking  up  for  a 
moment. 

The  skins  off,  rolled  up  and  bound  with  withs,  we 
started  down  the  stream,  with  the  intention  of  coming 
out  on  the  lake,  and  so  on  down  to  camp. 

Lower  down,  the  banks  were  even  steeper,  and 
crowned  with  a  smart  poplar-growth.  It  was  as  much 
as  we  could  do  to  get  along  without  tumbling  into  the 
stream ;  and,  just  at  one  of  the  most  difficult  places,  a 
poplar  had  fallen  adown  the  bank,  with  its  top  into  the 
water.  We  had  to  climb  over  it.  Wash  crawled  under. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  165 

Climbing  a  fence  with  snow-shoes  on  is  a  ticklish  job. 
The  Doctor  tumbled  over,  and  pulled  at  Raed,  who,  in 
turn,  caught  at  Wade :  so  that,  as  it  happened,  all  four 
of  them  were  down  into  the  snow  together.  And,  while 
there,  Wash  made  a  discovery.  "  By  Jude  ! "  said  he, 
"just  look  at  that  track!"  (It  should  be  remarked 
that  Wash  has  been  striving  earnestly  to  give  up  his 
habitual  "  By  Jude  ! "  and  has  pretty  nearly  succeeded. 
Only  great  surprises  catch  him.)  We  looked.  It  was  a 
queer  track.  Not  like  a  goose's  exactly.  It  had  five 
toes ;  but  they  were  webbed. 

"  It's  some  sort  of  large  water-fowl,"  the  Doctor  pro- 
nounced. 

"But  here  are  fresh  poplar-chips,"  observed  Eaed, 
picking  up  a  handful.  "And  see  there  —  up  by  the  root 
of  this  poplar!  Why,  fellows,  this  tree's  been  lately 
fallen  —  by  something  !  Gnawed  off !  And  look  at  the 
top  !  —  half  the  branches  gone,  and  lots  of  the  bark  off 
the  rest ! " 

"  Beavers  ! "  cried  Wash. 

"  Suppose  it  is  ?  "  E-aed  inquired. 

It  was  like  what  we  had  heard  of  beavers. 

Below  the  point  where  the  poplar-top  lay  in  the 
water  the  stream  was  deeper  and  more  sluggish;  but 
the  water  continued  open  for  some  rods  farther  on,  till 
the  brook  entered  a  sort  of  small  pond,  which  was,  of 
course,  frozen  over. 

"  If  it's  beaver,  there'll  be  houses  somewhere  round 
here,"  said  Wash.  "  Like  as  not,  this  little  pond  is 
made  by  one  of  their  famous  dams." 

We  hurried  on,  and,  coming  where   the  ice  was  firm, 


166  LYNX-HUNTING. 

went  out  on  it.  The  pond  covered,  perhaps,  three  acres ; 
and;  down  near  the  lower  end,  we  espied  several  little 
mound-like  hummocks  bulging  up  in  the  snow.  "Bet 
ye  those  are  the  huts ! "  offered  the  Doctor. 

We  presumed  they  were,  and  made  directly  for  them. 
But,  even  on  near  approach,  it  was  not  easy  determining : 
for  the  snow  buried  them  to  the  depth  of  several  feet ; 
and  it  was  not  easy  digging  through  so  thick  a  stratum, 
with  only  the  butts  of  our  guns  for  spades.  Their  posi- 
tion in  the  pond,  however,  as  also  the  marked  semblance 
of  a  dam  at  the  foot  of  it,  supported  our  conclusion. 
The  mounds  rose  about  four  feet  above  the  surrounding 
snow,  and  were  as  large  as  an  old-fashioned  potash-ket- 
tle, a  haycock,  or  (by  Wash's  comparison)  the  shell  of 
the  restored  glyptodon  in  the  Natural-history  Booms. 
A  lynx  had  been  out  to  one  of  these,  and  dug  in  through 
the  snow  near  the  base  of  the  mound.  Quite  a  quan- 
tity of  dirt  had  been  scratched  out,  some  sticks,  and  an 
old  knot,  water-worn. 

"  Beaver  inside,  ye  see.  Lynx  smelled  them ;  tried 
to  dig  them  out,"  was  the  way  Wash  explained  it ;  and 
it  seemed  likely  enough. 

"  We  must  trap  these  fellows,"  said  Wade.  "  But 
I  didn't  suppose  they  worked  on  their  huts  and  dams  at 
this  season  of  the  year.  Thought  they  were  denned  up 
in  the  winter." 

Wash  remarked,  that  it  was  probably  food  they  were 
out  after. 

"  What !  do  they  eat  poplar-wood?  "  exclaimed  Wade, 
laughing. 

"Not   poplar-wood    exactly,   but    poplar-baik,"   said 


LYNX-HUNTING.  167 

Wash.  "  That's  what  they  felled  that  tree  for.  They 
gnaw  off  the  branches,  and  take  them  down  under  the 
ice  to  their  houses  here.  We  might  set  traps  up 
there." 

"I  saw  a  lynx-track  up  there  near  the  poplar,"  re- 
marked Raed ;  "  a  lot  of  footprints  near  together,  as  if 
the  creature  had  stolen  up  slowly.  Do  you  suppose  the 
lynxes  catch  them  ?  " 

I  had  no  doubt  they  did  occasionally;  for  some 
years  ago,  while  up  in  the  "  wild  lands  "  of  this  State 
(Maine),  I  was  a  chance  witness  of  a  curious  attack 
made  by  a  lynx  upon  a  beaver-house. 

About  seven  miles  from  the  foot  of  the  Allaquash 
Lake,  there  was  a  beaver-colony  on  a  large  brook  known 
thereabouts  as  "  Bear  Brook  "  (there  are  probably  a  score 
of  Bear  Brooks  in  the  State).  I  had  stumbled  upon  it 
one  day  while  hunting  marten.  It  was  just  above  a 
bend  in  the  stream  at  the  lower  end  of  a  meadow,  or 
wooded  flat.  There  was  a  strong  dam  of  mud,  old 
knots  and  branches,  many  of  which  showed  the  marks  of 
the  beavers'  teeth.  It  had  seemingly  been  quite  recent- 
ly repaired ;  and,  in  one  place,  the  water  fell  over  it  in  a 
foamy  sheet. 

The  dam  flowed  the  brook  back,  forming  a  pond  of 
perhaps  an  acre  in  extent ;  and  in  the  pond  above  the 
dam  there  were  two  mud-huts,  rising  some  five  feet  out 
of  the  water. 

It  is  only  on  these  secluded  streams  and  in  small 
colonies  that  the  beaver  are  now  found  in  this  State. 
Formerly  every  brook  and  river  had  their  settlements,  — 
sometimes  a  score  of  families,  of  from  four  to  ten  in  u 
family. 


168  LYNX-HUNTING. 

Knowing  that  beaver  keep  in  their  houses  mostly  by 
day,  I  was  not  surprised  to  find  all  quiet  on  the  after- 
noon I  first  discovered  them. 

But  the  thought  occurred  to  me,  that,  by  coming  up 
by  moonlight,  I  might  shoot  one,  perhaps  two,  with  my 
double-barrelled  gun,  while  they  were  out  after  food  or 
swimming  in  the  pond. 

I  said  nothing  to  the  other  fellows ;  for  a  long  series 
of  experiences  had  taught  me  that  one  alone  is  far  more 
likely  to  be  successful  on  such  an  expedition  than  a 
party. 

So,  a  few  nights  after,  just  as  dusk  was  settling  over 
the  lake  and  the  forest,  I  stepped  quietly  out,  and,  tak- 
ing my  gun  from  the  hollow  trunk  of  a  great  maple 
where  I  kept  it,  started  on  my  evening  ramble. 

For  the  first  mile  or  two  the  woods  were  wonderfully 
still ;  scarcely  a  sound  save  that  of  my  own  feet  break- 
ing up  the  dead  brush.  Here  and  there,  a  hare,  dis- 
turbed in  its  form,  leaped  away ;  or  a  partridge,  roosting 
on  some  low  branch,  whirred  blindly  off  among  the  thick 
trunks  5  and  once  a  caribou  sprang  up  from  its  couch 
at  the  foot  of  a  birch,  with  deep-drawn  breath  as  it 
bounded  away. 

Presently  the  moon  looked  over  the  high  eastward 
ridges,  lighting  up  the  sky,  and  silvering  all  the  dusky 
tops  of  the  spruces.  The  elfish  rays  seemed  to  be  a 
signal  of  awakening.  Immediately  the  forest,  hitherto 
so  quiet,  became  vocal.  The  various  prowlers  of  the 
wilderness  began  their  cries.  Bears  coming  from  their 
dens  were  uttering  their  mournful  challenge ;  wildcats 
and  'coons  \rere  calling  to  each  other  j  and  owls  began 
their  disma/  hoots. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  169 

There  is  really  but  very  little  danger  in  the  open  for- 
est from  either  bear  or  wildcat.  The  hunter  has  but  one 
cause  of  fear,  —  the  pouncing-down,  from  some  tree-top, 
of  the  dreaded  catamount ;  and  these  creatures  are  now 
so  rare  in  Maine,  that  the  chance  of  thus  meeting  them 
is  small  indeed. 

The  gurgle  and  plunge  of  the  brook  over  the  dam 
announced  my  approach  to  the  beaver-settlement. 
Making  a  little  circuit,  I  worked  my  way  from  tree  to 
tree  down  toward  the  shore  of  their  pond.  Gaining  a 
point  where  I  could  look  out  upon  the  water,  I  stopped 
to  listen.  A  faint  paddljng  caught  my  ear.  Several 
black  heads  were  moving  about  in  the  water;  and  I 
presently  espied  a  beaver  perched  on  the  top  of  one  of 
the  mud-huts.  Soon  another  scrambled  up  the  side,  and 
began  to  "  box "  and  play  with  the  first.  They  were 
both  within  easy  range.  It  was  too  good  an  opportu- 
nity to  be  lost.  I  fired  with  first  one,  then  the  other,  of 
the  barrels,  and  knocked  them  both  off  into  the  water. 

Dropping  my  gun,  I  pulled  down  a  long,  dry  sap- 
ling, and,  by  wading  into  the  pond,  managed  to  draw 
both  the  carcasses  in  to  the  shore.  They  would  have 
weighed,  I  judge,  fifty  pounds  apiece.  I  lighted  a  roll 
of  bark  I  brought  for  a  torch,  got  out  my  knife,  and 
took  off  their  skins. 

The  reports  had,  of  course,  alarmed  the  others.  They 
had  hidden  themselves ;  and,  after  watching  a  while,  I 
went  back  to  the  camp. 

The  next  night  was  wet  and  foggy ;  but  the  following 
day  was  clear.  Knowing  that  the  moon  would  not  rise 
till  late,  I  decided  to  go  up  before  nightfall,  and  watch 


170  LYNX-HUNTING. 

for  the  beaver  to  come  out  at  dusk.  Sunset  found  me 
coseyly  ensconced  in  a  clump  of  alders  a  few  rods  back 
from  the  pond  —  on  the  lookout.  Half  an  hour  passed : 
dusk  was  falling ;  but  as  yet  there  had  been  no  sign  of 
life  about  the  beaver-settlement.  I  began  to  fear  that 
my  previous  raid  had  frightened  them  away. 

Suddenly  a  sly  step  on  the  dried  spruce  foliage  be- 
hind took  my  attention.  I  looked  around,  and  saw, 
through  the  alder-leaves,  a  mottled  gray  animal  coming 
down  toward  the  pond,  past  my  hiding-place.  A 
glance  at  the  large,  round  head  with  its  tasselled  ears, 
and  the  short  tail,  told  me  that  it  was  a  lynx.  He  had 
not  espied  me.  At  first,  I  supposed  he  was  after  water ; 
and  was  somewhat  surprised  to  see  him  steal  cautiously 
along  to  the  foot  of  a  large  white-pine  that  leaned  out 
over  the  little  pond,  and,  after  looking  around,  run  up 
the  trunk  to  a  large  limb  that  projected  out  over  the 
water. 

Along  this  the  beast  crept  for  ten  or  fifteen  feet  to 
where  the  smaller  boughs  from  the  sides  of  it  offered  a 
wider  surface  of  support.  Here  it  crouched,  and  lay 
motionless,  with  its  head  on  one  side  of  the  bough, 
looking  down. 

It  then  occurred  to  me,  that,  like  myself,  he  had  proba- 
bly come  to  hunt  beaver,  and  that  this  was  his  way  of 
doing  it. 

I  could  easily  have  shot  him  from  where  I  lay ;  but, 
reflecting  that  by  so  doing  I  should  scare  the  beaver,  I 
concluded  to  be  a  partner  with  him.  Indeed,  I  had 
begun  to  feel  no  little  curiosity  to  see  how  he  would 
manage  it. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  171 

Meanwhile  it  was  getting  dark  fast  in  the  woods, 
though  the  twilight  still  shone  in  on  the  little  pond. 

Presently  a  black  head  bobbed  up  into  the  faintly- 
glowing  surface  with  a  slight  splash,  and  began  swim- 
ming, throwing  the  water  into  glancing  ripples.  Then 
another  and  another  came  up,  till  seven  or  eight  were 
moving  about  at  once.  I  kept  my  eye  on  them  and  on 
ihe  lynx  alternately.  A  beaver  soon  climbed  upon  one 
of  the  houses  on  the  farther  side  of  the  pond ;  and,  ere 
long,  another  had  scrambled  on  the  house  nearest  the 
dam. 

I  then  noticed  more  particularly  that  the  limb  on 
which  the  lynx  was  lying  was  pretty  nearly  over  the 
house  nearest  the  bank  on  which  I  was  concealed, 
and  that  he  was  probably  waiting  for  some  of  them  to 
get  upon  it. 

Nor  was  I  mistaken ;  for,  in  the  course  of  five  or  ten 
minutes,  two  of  the  beavers,  as  in  a  frolic  or  a  chase, 
ran  up  the  side,  and  wrestled  with  their  paws,  one  try- 
ing to  push  the  other  off.  Instantly  the  lynx  dropped 
upon  them  with  a  pounce  and  a  growl. 

It  was  too  dark  to  get  a  good  view  of  the  struggle. 
There  was  a  noise  of  grappling,  growling,  and  the 
peculiar  grunt  of  the  beaver ;  then  all  three  of  them 
rolled  off  into  the  water  together  with  a  great  splash- 
ing. Instead  of  diving  to  hide,  the  other  beavers  came 
crowding  up,  swimming  with  their  heads  and  shoulders 
well  out  of  the  water :  clearly  they  were  coming  to  the 
rescue.  In  falling  from  the  hut,  the  combatants  had 
gone  down  behind  it.  From  where  I  was  crouching,  I 
could  not  see  their  tactics  in  the  water :  but,  judging 


172  LYNX-HUNTING. 

from  the  spattering  and  growlings,  they  had  a  pretty 
smart  "  set-to,"  in  which  the  lynx  was  over-matched  ; 
for  he  sprang  out,  and  climbed  dripping  to  the  top  of 
the  hut. 

The  noise  of  the  fight  had  roused  all  the  beavers  of 
the  colony.  They  came  swarming  about,  surrounding 
the  hut  on  which  the  lynx  sat,  on  all  sides.  It  was 
difficult  counting  them  in  the  fast-fading  light  ;  but  I 
thought  there  must  have  been  fifteen  or  twenty  of 


I  could  distinguish,  besides  the  gruff,  grunting  noise, 
a  chattering  of  teeth  as  they  menaced  their  enemy. 
The  lynx  seemed,  from  his  movements,  in  no  wise  desir- 
ous of  encountering  them  again  in  the  water  ;  and  it 
was  too  far  to  leap  to  the  bank.  The  beavers,  too, 
seemed  to  understand  their  advantage  :  they  were 
blockading  him  most  determinedly. 

Some  minutes  passed.  So  interested  had  I  become  in 
the  combat,  that  I  nearly  forgot  the  object  of  niy 
coming.  It  seemed  too  bad  to  fire  upon  the  beavers, 
who  were  so  valiantly  defending  their  homes  against  a 
fierce,  and,  to  them,  a  very  terrible  foe. 

I  took  as  good  aim  as  the  darkness  permitted  at  the 
lynx,  and  fired  both  barrels.  The  creature  leaped  off 
the  hut.  There  was  a  great  plunging  and  splashing. 

Hastily  loading  one  barrel,  I  ran  to  the  bank  ;  but  all 
was  now  quiet  save  the  lap  of  the  ripples  raised  by  the 
splashes,  and  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  of  either 
lynx  or  beavers. 

I  then  lighted  my  roll  of  bark,  and,  putting  it  on  a 
pole,  held  it  out  over  the  water.  Neither  trace  nor 


LYNX-HUNTING.  173 

vestige  of  the  late  combatants  was  to  be  discerned. 
The  beavers  had  dived:  and  the  lynx  had  sunk  or 
escaped ;  most  likely  the  latter. 

I  give  this  little  story  for  what  it  is  worth,  hoping  it 
may  correct  what  I  deem  a  rather  erroneous  opinion  of 
many  naturalists,  —  that  the  beaver  has  no  means  of 
defence  save  in  flight. 

Going  down  the  lake  (for  the  brook  made  in  at  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  below),  we  had  dinner,  and  decided  to 
carry  up  traps  for  the  beaver.  E-aed  had  an  idea  that 
a  beaver-pelt  was  worth  twenty  dollars.  He  had 
somewhere  read  that  they  brought  a  dollar  an  ounce. 
But  this  price  must  have  been  quoted  in  days  before  the 
silk  hat  came  in  vogue,  —  days  when  grand  old  beaver 
"  tiles "  graced  the  dandy  brows  of  the  gentry.  They 
don't  bring  such  prices  now;  never  will  again.  A 
beaver-skin  is  now  worth  from  two  to  five  dollars. 
But  we  were  none  of  us  certain  as  to  the  price,  and 
rather  encouraged  E/aed  in  figuring  up  the  net  profit 
at  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  on  seven  or  eight  beaver 
which  we  were  going  to  catch.  This  set  the  Doctor 
high-cockalorum  at  once.  "  Why  !  "  he  exclaimed, 
" that's  the  total  of  fees  for  cutting  off  three  legs; 
and  it  isn't  often  a  young  surgeon  gets  a  leg  to  saw 
off." 

So  bright  was  the  prospect,  that  he  offered  to  go  to 
the  swamp  to  take  up  one  of  the  traps  set  there  (for 
we  concluded  that  the  two  set  in  the  birch-top  for 
hares  would  not  be  enough),  and  started  off  on  the 
moment  without  gun  or  any  thing  —  but  his  hat. 

Meanwhile  we  took  up  the  two  from  the  birch-brush, 


174  LYNX-HUNTING. 

one  of  which  held  a  hare.  Wash  also  shot  a  second 
hare,  that  was  budding  nonchalantly  beside  its  dis- 
tressed companion  in  the  trap.  Indeed,  it  is  a  creature 
not  overburdened  with  "mother  wit."  The  Doctor 
came  hurriedly  back  to  us. 

"  Game,  boys !  —  game  !  "  he  shouted.  "  In  the  very 
first  trap  !  A  black,  ugly-looking  brute  as  ever  I  set 
eyes  on ! " 

Wade  went  after  the  rifle.  Then  we  all  started  for 
the  swamp. 

"  I  hadn't  the  gun,  ye  see,"  the  Doctor  explained  to 
us.  "  I  did  break  a  club  to  knock  it  on  the  head ;  but 
it  bristled  up  and  showed  its  teeth  so,  that  I'll  be  dosed 
if  I  cared  to  go  very  near." 

On  coming  up,  lo !  there  was  a  fisher  hard  and 
fast  by  one  fore-foot !  —  about  the  wickedest-looking 
fellow  I  ever  saw.  He  had  dragged  the  trap  with 
both  clogs  nearly  a  hundred  yards ;  and  would  doubt- 
less have  gone  farther,  had  not  one  of  them  caught 
between  a  great  bass  and  a  fir-shrub.  Finding  himself 
fast,  he  had  gnawed  and  bitten  the  trap  till  it  shone  all 
over  from  the  scratches  made  by  his  teeth.  He  had 
gnawed  the  clogs  too,  covering  the  snow  with  chips ; 
and  gnawed  and  torn  the  bark  all  off  the  bass,  on  one 
side,  up  as  far  as  he  could  reach.  We  did  not  so 
much  wonder  that  the  Doctor  didn't  like  the  looks  of  it. 

The  boys  walked  round  it  at  a  respectful  distance,  for 
some  minutes,  to  observe  its  motions.  We  had  some 
difficulty  in  keeping  Grip  back :  he  had  inadvertently 
followed  us  out.  The  fisher  kept  facing  about  to  the 
hound,  making  a  curious  gruff,  snuffling  noise,  and  dart- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  175 

ing  out  its  nose  menacingly.  It  was  a  very  compactly- 
built  creature.  Its  body  was  nearly  as  long  as  an 
otter's ;  its  legs  were  short,  but  very  thick  and  muscu- 
lar;  and  its  black  claws  looked  nearly  or  quite  as  formi- 
dable as  those  of  a  lynx.  Wade  at  length  fired  the 
rifle  at  its  head.  The  bullet  struck  an  inch  above  its 
eyes,  and  it  dropped.  Grip  sprang  upon  it,  and  shook 
the  carcass  to  his  heart's  content.  As  we  were  intend- 
ing to  take  up  the  trap,  we  threw  off  the  clogs ;  and 
Wash  and  I  took  hold  of  the  chain  to  drag  it  in  the 
trap  up  to  camp.  We  had  gone  twenty  or  thirty  rods, 
when  a  sudden  cessation  of  draft  made  us  look  round. 
There  stood  the  fisher  on  its  feet,  making  a  rather 
dizzy  attempt  to  jump  at  us.  We  let  go  the  chain  in 
a  hurry,  and  put  a  few  yards  of  discretion  between  us 
and  the  suddenly-resurrected  animal  with  commendable 
despatch.  Our  exclamations  caused  the  others,  who 
were  a  little  in  advance,  to  turn  quickly. 

"  What,  come  to  life  again ! "  Wade  exclaimed  in 
great  astonishment. 

It  looked  like  it. 

"  Well,  if  a  ball  in  the  head  isn't  sufficient,  I'll  see 
what  one  through  the  heart  will  do ; "  saying  which, 
Wade  fired  a  second  bullet  into  the  animal's  breast. 
The  blood  flew.  The  shock  knocked  the  beast  over ; 
but  it  immediately  regained  its  feet,  and  stood  wheezing 
for  breath.  "  Strangely  tenacious  of  life  ! "  cried  the 
Doctor. 

Tenacious  indeed ;  and  a  gory,  piteous  spectacle  to 
boot.  I  got  a  heavy  bludgeon  of  dry  sapling,  and 
knocked  it  on  the  head  repeatedly,  till  it  seemed  as  if 


176  LYNX-HUNTING. 

its  cranium  must  be  effectually  broken.  I  saw,  how- 
ever, that  the  rifle-bullet  had  but  glanced  from  its  hard, 
firm  skull.  After  this  second  killing,  we  started  on 
again ;  but,  almost  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  before  we 
got  to  camp  the  beast  again  got  partially  on  its  legs. 
It  really  seemed  to  possess  a  life  independent  of  its 
body.  This  time  we  got  the  axe,  and  cut  its  head  sheer 
off;  and  were  almost  surprised  to  observe  that  it  did  not 
come  to  life  again. 

The  adventure  with  the  fisher  had  consumed  so  much 
of  the  afternoon,  that  we  were  obliged  to  forego  setting 
the  beaver-traps  till  the  next  day. 

The  skin  came  off  very  hard.  We  were  over  an 
hour,  even  with  the  Doctor's  professional  assistance, 
getting  it  "peeled."  Either  the  incident,  or  the  odor 
(peculiar  to  the  weasel  family)  which  the  animal 
emitted,  recalled  a  rather  doughty  adventure  with  one 
of  these  same  creatures,  in  which,  as  a  boy,  the  writer 
had  a  hand  ten  years  ago. 

It  was  in  October,  —  one  of  those  magic  months 
for  hunters  which  contain  the  letter  r.  During  every 
month  spelled  with  an  "  r,"  fur  is  good ;  that  is,  salable. 
Fur  can,  therefore,  be  "taken  off"  from  September  to 
May.  This  is  the  rule  old  hunters  go  by. 

Jud  Edwards  and  his  brother  Tom  (boy-friends  of  the 
writer)  had  got  a  line  of  mink-traps  set  over  on  Koaiing 
Brook,  which  here  comes  tumbling  down  over  the  rocks 
from  the  North  Pond  behind  the  mountain  of  which  it 
is  the  outlet.  I  wasn't  exactly  a  member  of  Tom  and 
Jud's  firm;  but  I  used  to  go  up  with  them  sometimes, 
and  had  an  interest  in  the  business.  Perhaps  I  was 
what  merchants  would  call  a  "  silent  partner." 


LYNX-HUNTING.  177 

The  brook  was  full  of  trout ;  and  the  mountain-mink 
love  to  fish  in  its  clear,  dark  pools. 

They  had  set  a  line  of  figure-four  traps  for  two  miles 
along  the  bank,  and  used  to  visit  them  once  in  two  or 
three  days. 

The  traps  had  been  set  about  a  fortnight,  and  three 
mink  had  been  taken;  when  Jud,  whose   turn  it  had 
been  to  go  "  the  rounds,"  came  running  down  one  morn-  * 
ing,  while  we  were  at  breakfast,  in  great  excitement. 

"  Somebody's  torn  up  all  our  traps ! "  cried  he. 

"  Torn  up  the  traps  !  "  exclaimed  Tom. 

"  Yes,  every  one  of  them,  and  thrown  the  poles  and 
stakes  all  round ! " 

"  Why !    Who  did  it,  s'pose  ?  " 

"  Don't  know.  The  Andros  boy,  perhaps.  He  meant 
to  trap  there,  you  know.7' 

"  Oh  !  I  don't  believe  'twas  Skip  Andros,"  said  Tom. 
"  He  ain't  mean  enough  for  that." 

"  Well,  I  don't  know.  There  'tis !  Somebody  did  it. 
Going  to  set  'em  over  again  ?  " 

"  Of  course !  "  said  Tom.    «  We  won't  give  up  for  this." 

And,  after  breakfast,  we  all  went  over  to  the  brook. 
Every  trap  was  broken  up,  as  Jud  had  reported.  Some- 
body had  made  clean  work  with  us.  One  thing  puzzled 
us  a  little,  though :  our  "  drag,"  which  we  had  left  at  the 
upper  end  of  the  line,  was  torn  all  to  pieces,  as  if  some- 
thing had  tried  to  eat  it. 

"  Whoever  did  it  must  have  had  a  dog  with  him," 
said  Tom. 

"  Mean  sneak !  "  cried  Jud.  "  I'd  like  to  catch  him 
at  it!" 

12 


178  LYNX-HUNTING. 

We  went  to  work,  and,  by  eleven  o'clock,  had  set  them 
all  up  again ;  and  it  was  decided  to  visit  them  as  soon 
as  the  next  morning  again. 

It  was  Tom's  turn ;  and  he  was  up  and  off  before 
breakfast,  but,  in  course  of  an  hour,  came  back  fuming. 

"All  smashed  up  again!"  he  cried,  —  "just  as  'twas 
yesterday  morning  !  But  I  don't  think  it  was  a  feller 
that  did  it :  for  there  had  been  a  mink  in  one  of  the 
traps  when  it  was  torn  up;  and  they  tore  that  all  to 
pieces  too,  and  scattered  bits  of  fur  all  about !  Perhaps 
they  did  that  to  fool  us,  though." 

Jud  was  discouraged. 

"No  use  to  set  them  again,"  said  he. 

But  sturdy  Tom  wouldn't  give  it  up ;  and  we  went 
over  and  fell  to  work  once  more,  and,  by  noon,  had  them 
in  running  order  again. 

"We  shall  find  them  flat  by  morning,"  said  Jud  as 
we  went  back  along. 

"  Some  of  us  must  watch,"  said  Tom.  "  Father  won't 
spare  me  this  afternoon.  Can't  you  go  over  and  watch 
them,  Jud  ?  " 

Jud  had  the  same  excuse.  But  they  both  thought  I 
would  do;  and  so  the  watching  fell  to  me,  —  rather  a 
lonely,  and  possibly  dangerous,  job.  After  dinner,  how- 
ever, I  loaded  ihe  old  gun,  sharpened  my  jack-knife,  and 
got  ready  for  a  war. 

"  Of  course  you  won't  fire  at  a  feller  or  a  man  if  it 
should  happen  to  be  one,"  Tom  instructed ;  "  but  if  it's 
a  bear,  or  any  other  creature,  take  good  aim,  and  bring 
him  if  you  can." 

"  Don't  fire  unless  you  see  something,"  said  Jud ; 
"  and  we'll  come  up  as  soon  as  we  hear  the  gun." 


LYNX-HUNTING.  179 

And,  with  this  understanding,  I  set  off.  It  was  con- 
siderably over  a  mile  to  the  brook,  and,  all  the  way, 
through  woods  and  over  pasture-lands. 

About  midway  of  our  line  of  traps  the  stream  ran 
through  a  shrubbery  opening,  in  which,  some  five  or  six 
rods  from  the  bank,  there  stood  a  clump  of  low  hem- 
locks. Among  these  I  secreted  myself.  I  thus  had 
three  of  the  traps  in  sight.  They  were  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  stream  from  my  hiding-place,  and  all  within 
range  of  the  old  "  queen's  arm,"  I  calculated.  It  was 
rather  lonesome  business  ;  but  the  afternoon  wore  away. 

There  had  been  a  frost,  and  the  whole  forest  had  come 
out  in  its  autumn  finery.  Crows  and  jays  were  muster- 
ing for  their  trip  southward.  'Twas  a  noisy,  gaudy 
scene  ;  but  nothing  came  near  the  traps. 

About  three  o'clock  it  came  in  cloudy ;  and,  by  four, 
it  had  become  lowery  and  dark.  I  had  got  dreadfully 
sick  of  the  job,  and  was  almost  starting  out  for  home ; 
when  suddenly  the  brush  crackled  in  the  woods  below; 
and,  a  few  moments  later,  a  largish  black  creature  came 
out  into  the  opening,  and,  putting  up  its  muzzle,  began 
to  snuffle,  and  look  stealthily  around.  My  first  glance 
showed  me  that  it  was  no  dog,  and  that  I  need  not  ex- 
pect any  man  behind  it;  but  I  kept  quiet.  It  was 
still  some  twenty  or  twenty-five  rods  off.  After  watch- 
ing a  while,  it  moved  on  up  the  brook  toward  the  lower 
end  of  the  traps.  It  couldn't  be  a  bear,  either;  for  its 
motions  were  cat-like ;  and  its  body,  though  long,  was 
slim  and  lithe;  while  its  legs  were  short.  Following 
the  trail  made  by  the  "  drag,"  and  coming  to  the  lowest 
of  the  traps,  it  thrust  in  its  paws  between  the  poles  of 


180  LYNX-HUNTING. 

the  "  spring,"  pulled  them  apart,  and  ate  the  bait ;  then, 
after  smelling  round  a  little,  started  on  to  the  next  one, 
which  was  nearest  to  me.  Now  was  my  time.  I  cocked 
the  gun ;  but  the  animal  heard  the  click,  and  stopped, 
with  a  suspicious  glance  at  the  hemlocks.  I  pulled  the 
trigger,  got  an  awful  kick,  and,  for  a  second  or  two, 
couldn't  see  any  thing  for  smoke,  but,  scrambling  up  out 
of  the  hemlock,  perceived  the  creature  bounding  away 
on  the  other  side  of  the  stream. 

On  the  upper  edge  of  the  clearing,  near  the  foot  of  the 
mountain,  was  a  ledge,  or  cairn,  of  large  rocks ;  and 
among  these  the  robber  disappeared,  crawling  into  a 
great  crevice.  I  had  no  wish  to  beard  him  in  his  den 
alone ;  and  so,  going  up  within  seven  or  eight  rods, 
halted,  and  began  loading,  and  firing  at  the  hole  to  keep 
him  in.  I  had  him  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  kept  the 
shot  rattling  round  his  door ;  devoutly  hoping,  though, 
that  he  wouldn't  make  a  sortie. 

In  course  of  half  an  hour  I  heard  voices,  and  saw  the 
boys  come  panting  into  the  opening,  —  Tom,  Jud,  and 
another,  who  turned  out  to  be  Sam  Wheeler,  a  cousin 
of  theirs,  who  had  come  during  the  afternoon.  Now, 
Sam  was  a  first-rate  chap,  and  a  good  scholar  at  books, 
yet  one  of  a  class  of  boys  you  often  meet,  —  a  fellow  brim- 
ful of  great  projects,  often  not  very  practicable  ones. 
But  he  was  always  ready  to  undertake  them  himself, 
and  hadn't  a  drop  of  coward  blood  in  him ;  in  short, 
had  "  more  zeal  than  wisdom." 

They  came  running  up.  Sam  had  brought  the  pitch- 
fork, and  Jud  had  an  axe.  I  hurriedly  explained  what  I 
had  seen  and  done  j  and  we  made  up  to  the  ledge.  The 


LYNX-HUNTING.  181 

creature,  whatever  it  was,  had  crept  far  down  under  one 
of  the  large  rocks.  We  could  hear  him  snarl ;  but  it 
sounded  in  a  good  ways ;  and  we  couldn't  see  any  thing 
of  him  from  the  mouth  of  the  den. 

How  to  get  at  the  beast  was  the  question. 

"Tell  you  what,"  said  Sam:  "we  must  do  as  old 
Gen.  Putnam  did.  You've  all  read  how  he  went  down 
into  the  old  she-wolfs  den  with  a  rope  tied  to  his  leg, 
and  shot  her  by  the  light  of  her  own  glaring  eyes  ?  " 

Yes,  we  had  heard  of  that ;   but  — 

"Who's  afraid?"  exclaimed  Sam. 

Nobody,  of  course,  was  afraid :  still  — 

"  I'll  go  down ! "  cried  he.     "  Load  the  gun  ! " 

"  But  we  hain't  got  any  rope,"  said  Tom,  "  to  tie  on 
your  leg." 

"  Might  take  his  comforter,"  suggested  Jud. 

It  was  a  new  and  very  long  one. 

"  Just  the  thing ! "  said  Sam. 

And  we  soon  had  it  securely  knotted  round  his  ankle. 

"  Now,"  said  Sam,  taking  the  gun,  and  preparing  to 
descend,  "  when  I  kick  the  comforter,  you  must  pull  me 
out.  That's  what  old  Put  told  'em." 

Jud  and  I  took  the  other  end  of  it,  and  prepared  to 
pull  when  signalled.  Thus  arranged,  Sam  thrust  in  the 
gun,  and  crawled  bravely  into  the  crevice.  Tom,  mean- 
while, took  the  pitchfork,  and  stood  ready  for  emer- 
gencies. Sam  slowly  wriggled  in.  It  took  some  time 
for  his  boots  to  get  fairly  out  of  sight.  But  he  squirmed 
on  manfully ;  and  we  had  payed  out  nearly  all  of  the 
comforter,  when  there  occurred  a  sudden  halt,  a  bump, 
and  a  deafening  explosion,  followed  by  yawls  and 


182  LYNX-HUNTING. 

smothered  shouts  from  Sam,  and  a  most  spasmodic  kick- 
ing. We  pulled  and  yanked  away  as  per  agreement. 
He  wouldn't  come :  but,  after  a  most  tremendous  yerk, 
something  suddenly  gave  way ;  and  out  came  the  com- 
forter, with  one  of  his  boots. 

The  uproar  inside  redoubled:  volumes  of  stifling 
smoke,  bearing  a  horrible  odor  of  burnt  hair,  gushed  out ; 
midst  which  there  leaped  forth,  not  Sam,  —  who  ought 
to  have  come  out  first,  —  but  the  cat,  spitting  and  snap- 
ping, and,  rushing  headlong,  knocked  Jud  sprawling.  I 
jumped  away  for  dear  life.  But  Tom,  who  had  the 
fork,  gave  him  a  thrust  which  took  his  attention :  and, 
looking  back,  I  beheld  a  pitched  battle  going  on  be- 
tween Tom  and  the  beast ;  Tom  backing  off  and  prod- 
ding wildly  with  the  fork,  and  the  animal  jumping 
wildly  at  him. 

Meanwhile  Jud  regained  his  legs,  and,  seizing  the  axe, 
ran  in  from  behind,  and  dealt  the  creature  a  blow  on  the 
head,  which  laid  him  out,  —  stunned ;  in  which  condi- 
tion he  speedily  got  wounds  enough  from  fork  and  axe 
to  have  killed  a  whole  menagerie. 

In  the  frenzy  of  the  tussle  we  quite  forgot  Sam,  but, 
hearing  a  scraping  sound,  turned  to  see  him  just  emer- 
ging from  the  crevice,  headforemost  this  time,  but  in 
wretched  plight.  His  jacket  and  pants  were  terribly 
lacerated,  his  hair  full  of  dirt,  and  boot  gone.  We 
stared  at  him. 

"  Halloo,  Sam !  —  thought  you  was  a  goner  !  "  ex- 
claimed Tom. 

"  Thunderation ! "  ejaculated  Sam.  "  Why  didn't  you 
pull  a  feller's  leg  off,  and  dene  with  it ! " 


LYNX-HUNTING.  183 

"  Here's  your  boot,  Sam.  Did  he  scratch  ye  ?  "  (pa- 
cifically.) 

"  Scratch  me !  Look  at  my  jacket !  He  went  ovei 
me  like  a  streak  o'  lightning ! " 

"Why  didn't  you  shoot  him,  Sam  ?" 

"  Didn't  see  him  till  he  rushed.  Didn't  have  time 
to  take  aim." 

"  Didn't  his  eyes  give  light  enough,  Sam  ?  " 

"  You  go  to  thunder,  the  whole  of  ye  ! " 

And,  whenever  we  used  to  want  to  stir  Sam  up  a 
little,  we  would  ask  him  what  he  thought  of  old  Put 
and  the  she-wolf. 


TENTH  DAY. 

Setting  Traps  for  Beaver.  —  "  Busting  "  a  Beaver-Hut.  —  "  Decid- 
edly Hard-shelled."  — Mining  the  Walls.  —  The  Inside.  — The 
Doctor  comes  in  from  the  Swamp  Panic-stricken.  —  A  Strange 
Recital.  —  Trap  carried  off  by  a  Catamount. —  Terrific  Shrieks. 
—  We  sally  out.  —  Ugly  Fancies.  —  A  Scare.  —  A  Moment  of 
Suspense.  —  A  Revelation. 

"  in  AE.LY  next  morning  we  set  off  to  put  down  the 
I  'J  traps  for  the  beaver.  The  sun  was  just  rising  as 
we  went  up  the  lake.  A  fine,  sharp  January  morning ; 
every  thing  hrisk  and  crisp.  Two  rose-colored  peaks 
showing  over  the  forest  to  the  north-west  drew  repeated 
exclamations  of  admiration  from  the  boys. 

We  went  in  through  the  spruces  quite  cautiously,  in 
the  hope  of  espying  some  of  the  beaver  about  the  pop- 
lar they  had  felled.  But  all  was  quiet.  Perhaps  they 
had  heard  us,  and  retired ;  for  the  beaver  is  more  shy 
than  the  fox  even.  More  probably  they  did  not  come 
out  by  day  at  all.  Hunters  tell  me  that  it  is  rare 
that  a  beaver  is  surprised  at  work  in  the  day-time. 
Night  is  their  time  for  labor.  There  were  fresh  chips 
about  the  poplar.  More  branches  had  been  gnawed  off. 
There  were  also  fresh  tracks}  and  a  plunging  trail 
181 


LYNX-HUNTING.  185 

showed  where  a  lynx  had  made  a  rush  down  the  side  of 
the  high  hank  upon  them ;  hut  there  were  no  signs  to 
indicate  that  his  incursion  had  heen  crowned  with  a 
capture.  There  was  good  opportunity  for  the  heaver  to 
dive  off  into  water  four  and  six  feet  deep. 

Several  branches,  gnawed  up  into  fagots  three  and  four 
feet  long,  were  floating,  partially  frozen,  into  "anchor- 
ice."  It  looked  as  if  they  took  these  green  limbs  down 
under  the  ice  of  the  pond  to  their  huts.  Beaver  ordi- 
narily store  up  wood  enough  during  the  fall  to  last  them 
through  the  winter.  This  wood  they  lay  along  the  bot- 
tom of  their  pond  near  their  huts ;  piling  on  mud,  with 
small  stones  sufficient  to  hold  it  down.  But  occa- 
sionally they  get  short,  and  have  to  turn  out  even  in 
January.  In  localities,  too,  like  the  one  above  referred 
to,  where  the  water  does  not  wholly  freeze  over,  they  are 
said  to  be  less  diligent  in  gathering  their  winter-store ; 
aware,  probably,  that  they  will  be  able  to  come  out  at 
will. 

We  set  the  three  traps  under  water,  a  little  below  the 
place  where  they  had  come  up  into  the  poplar  top, 
chaining  them  fast  to  the  larger  branches.  This  done, 
we  went  down  to  the  huts.  Wash  was  very  anxious  to 
"  see  how  they  looked  inside."  He  had  brought  along 
the  pine  shovel  and  the  axe ;  and,  at  the  risk  of  fright- 
ening the  animals  from  their  retreat,  we  undertook  to 
break  into  one  of  the  houses. 

E-aed  cleared  off  the  snow,  —  something  of  a  job;  for 
there  were  over  two  feet  of  it.  Then  there  stood  re- 
vealed the  snowy  turf  top  of  the  hut,  bristling  with 
short  bits  of  stick  and  crumbling  muck-lumps;  and, 


186  LYNX-HUNTING. 

clearing  away  the  snow  from  the  sides,  a  round  structure, 
about  four  five  high  by  perhaps  six  in  diameter,  was 
before  us.  Wash  took  up  the  axe.  "Be  ready  now 
with  your  guns  to  shoot  when  I  knock  it  open,"  he 
advised,  delivering  a  full  blow  against  the  side. 

He  might  as  well  have  struck  a  rock.  The  back  of 
the  axe  rebounded  from  the  hard  frozen  mass.  But 
almost  instantly  we  heard  a  splash  down  into  the  water, 
inside,  followed  immediately  by  another  and  another,  — 
a  very  peculiar,  muffled  slap-dash,  slap-dash.  We  pre- 
sumed it  to  be  the  beaver,  frightened  by  the  blow. 

Wash  gave  a  second  stroke,  and  a  third,  to  no  appar- 
ent eifect. 

"  Pretty  hard-shelled  affair,"  remarked  the  Doctor. 

"  Need  a  crowbar,"  Baed  observed. 

Wash  and  I  went  off  to  the  shore  and  cut  a  small 
rock-maple  sapling  for  a  "  pry."  This  was  sharpened 
at  one  end ;  and  for  more  than  half  an  hour  we  jailed 
with  it,  and  beat  with  the  "  eye  "  of  the  axe,  trying  to 
break  a  hole  in  the  hut-wall,  to  small  purpose.  The 
firmly-compacted  mass  of  mud  and  fagots,  now  ten 
times  more  tenacious  from  frost,  resisted  our  best 
strokes.  We  chipped,  and  wore  holes  into  it  four  and 
six  inches  deep  ;  but  still  the  wall  showed  no  signs  of 
yielding  or  cracking.  No  wonder  the  lynx  had  given 
it  up. 

Frozen  earth  is  almost  as  hard  as  granite,  and,  worse 
B  till,  has  no  plane  of  clearage. 

"  Nothing  but  gunpowder'll  start  it,"  was  the  Doctor's 
opinion. 

We  had  not  enough   powder  with  us,  and  so  went 


LYNX-HUNTING.  187 

back  to  camp,  and  put  the  matter  over  till  afternoon : 
for  Wash  was  determined  to  break  in,  now  that  he  had 
undertaken  it. 

Accordingly,  after  dinner,  we  took  a  fresh  flaskful  of 
powder,  and  set  off  again.  The  Doctor,  however,  pre- 
ferred to  "  keep  house,7'  and  read  "  White  Lies : "  so  we 
left  him  behind.  But  he  promised  to  go  out  to  the 
swamp  during  the  afternoon,  and  look  to  the  traps  there. 
For  that  purpose  we  left  him  the  shot-gun. 

How  to  use  powder  on  the  stubborn  mud-mound  was 
not  directly  perceptible.  E-aed  procured  a  dry  hemlock 
limb  which  had  fallen  during  some  of  the  late  storms, 
and,  cutting  out  a  piece  about  a  foot  in  length,  sharp- 
ened it  in  form  of  a  drill.  With  this,  after  repeated  re- 
sharpenings,  a  hole  was  punched  slantwise  into  the  wall 
to  the  depth  of  nine  or  ten  inches.  Into  this  hole  we 
proposed  to  introduce  our  powder.  But  a  difficulty 
arose :  we  had  no  fuze.  Various  propositions  were  dis- 
cussed to  supply  this  lack.  At  length  Wade  went  off 
to  the  high  bank  at  the  upper  end  of  the  pond,  and  cut 
a  sumac-bush.  From  a  section  of  one  of  the  stalks  he 
punched  out  the  pith,  leaving  a  hole  the  size  of  a  small 
pipe-stem.  This  tube  he  proposed  to  fill  with  powder, 
and  use  as  fuze.  The  powder  —  about  a  quarter  of  a 
pound  of  it  —  was  then  wrapped  in  a  bit  of  newspaper, 
and  thrust  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  hole.  The  sumac 
tube  was  next  run  down,  and  driven  through  into  the 
powder.  The  hole  was  then  "  tamped  "  with  bits  of 
frozen  earth,  and  small  stones  driven  in  hard  with  a  plug 
and  the  axe.  Powder  was  afterwards  poured  into  the 
hole  in  the  tube,  and  the  bias1:  declared  ready.  Nobody 


188  LYNX-HUNTING. 

cared  to  touch  it  off,  however,  in  its  present  state :  the 
explosion  bade  fair  to  follow  incontinently  close  upon  the 
heels  of  the  touching.  Wash  amended  this  imperfec- 
tion hy  laying  a  train  of  paper  up  the  side  of  the  wall. 
It  was  then  fired,  and  we  ran  off  a  few  rods. 

A  dull  tunk  shook  the  ice ;  and  a  lump  of  the  frozen 
wall  rose  fifty  or  sixty  feet,  and  fell  back  heavily  into 
the  snow.  We  ran  up.  The  blast  had  blown  out  a 
piece  as  large  as  a  peck-measure  only ;  but  it  had  rent 
open  a  small  cranny  leading  down  into  a  black  cavity 
within.  This  cavity  was  the  upper  chamber  of  the 
house;  but  we  were  surprised  at  the  thickness  and 
strength  of  the  wall,  —  fourteen  to  fifteen  inches,  Raed 
declared,  after  applying  his  pocket-rule.  Wash  then 
thrust  in  the  lever,  and  tried  to  wrench  the  sides  apart : 
we  all  lent  our  strength  to  it,  but  only  succeeded  in 
breaking  the  lever. 

"  What  we  need  is  a  big  pry,"  exclaimed  Wade,  —  "a 
fifteen-foot  one." 

A  stout  white-birch  was  felled,  trimmed  up,  and 
dragged  along ;  and  with  this  formidable  representa- 
tive of  the  mechanical  powers,  wielded  by  our  united 
strength,  the  hut  was  at  length  "bust."  But  our  tire- 
some experience  suggests  a  bit  of  advice  to  sportsmen  : 
Never  think  to  break  into  a  beaver-house  in  the  winter 
with  less  than  pick  and  crowbar.  In  January,  at  least, 
they  are,  to  use  the  Doctor's  phrase,  decidedly  "  hard- 
shelled." 

We  had  opened  a  large  hole  into  the  upper  apart- 
ment of  the  hut,  which  was  about  the  size  and  shape  of 
a  ten-pail  kettle  turned  bottom  up.  This  was  a  dry 


LYNX-HUNTING.  189 

chamber,  and  contained,  when  gathered  up,  quite  a  large 
wisp  of  dried  grass.  There  were  also  a  number  of  pop- 
lar-sticks, bare  of  bark.  In  the  floor  was  a  hole,  nearly 
a  foot  in  diameter,  communicating  with  the  room  below. 
The  water  came  up  to  the  floor :  we  could  see  it 
through  the  hole.  Wash  ran  down  the  broken  lever. 
There  was  a  sudden  movement,  as  if  a  beaver  had  gone 
out :  possibly  one  or  more  of  them  had  remained  in  the 
lower  apartment.  The  lever  went  down  freely  into  the 
hole,  indicating  about  four  feet  of  water  in  the  room  be- 
low. The  floor  separating  the  two  rooms  was  of  sticks 
and  mud,  like  the  walls.  On  first  breaking  it  open,  the 
chamber  had  a  very  strong  odor,  a  sort  of  conglomera- 
tion of  smells,  —  castoreum,  and  certain  others  not  so 
rare.* 

It  was  dusk  before  we  got  back  to  camp.  "  White 
Lies  "  lay  on  the  hemlock -boughs  ;  but  the  Doctor  was 
gone.  We  presumed  he  had  read  till  late ;  then  gone 
off  to  the  swamp  in  a  hurry,  to  look  to  the  traps,  as  he 
had  promised.  The  boys  were  not  a  little  incensed  at 
him  for  not  having  supper  ready.  Worse  still,  the 
wretch  had  actually  let  the  fire  go  out,  —  a  most  uncon- 
donable  offence.  Wood  had  to  be  cut;  and  it  was  quite 
dark  before  the  meat  and  coffee  could  be  got  under 
way. 

"  Where  s'pose  the  Doctor's  betaken  himself  ? " 
Wade  at  length  questioned. 

"  Don't  know,  don't  care,"  snapped  Wash ;  but  he 
had  just  singed  his  finger  with  a  brand. 

Ten  minutes  more  passed.     I  wondered  a  little  that 

*  See  Field  Notes  on  Beaver. 


190  LYNX-HUNTING. 

he  did  not  come.  If  I  rightly  estimated  the  Doctor's 
intellect,  he  was  not  a  man  to  stay  alone  in  that  swamp 
long  after  dark. 

A  few  minutes  later,  we  heard  the  creak  and  crump 
of  rackets ;  and  our  now  illustrious  fellow-sportsman 
came  hurriedly  up,  but  with  the  appearance  of  a  man 
struggling  to  he  calm.  He  had  a  couple  of  pond-trout 
on  a  crotched  twig ;  hut  he  threw  them  down  without 
allusion  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  fishing.  Some- 
thing more  weighty  was  on  his  mind. 

"  What  luck,  Doctor  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Boys,"  he  began  in  a  tone  out  of  which  all  accent 
of  excitement  was  guardedly  expressed,  — "  boys,  you 
won't  care  to  have  me  fetch  another  big  ivonderment 
from  that  swamp  "  (with  a  gesture  swampward).  "  I  sold 
myself  too  cheap  out  there  only  the  other  day  to  care 
about  doing  the  same  thing  over  again  right  away." 

"  What  is  it,  Doctor  ?  "  we  all  exclaimed. 

"Trap  gone,"  remarked  the  Doctor,  with  the  air  of 
an  unwilling  witness  determined  not  to  commit  himself. 

"Got  the  clogs  off?"  I  said. 

"  Clogs  and  all,"  replied  the  Doctor  briefly. 

"Gone,  clogs  and  all!"  Wash  exclaimed.  "Well,  I 
suppose  it  hasn't  gone  far." 

"  Followed  it  as  much  as  a  quarter  of  a  mile  myself," 
remarked  the  Doctor,  with  the  easy  confidence  of  a  man 
who  knows  he  has  in  hand  a  good  thing  which  will 
speak  for  itself. 

I  began  to  feel  considerably  interested,  and  asked  him 
what  the  trail  looked  like. 

"  That's  just  it ! "  said  he,  giving  his  leg  a  little  confi- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  191 

dential  slap.  "  A  very  heavy  trail.  Went  off  on  the 
leap.  Took  ten  and  eleven  feet  at  a  jump,  —  clogs,  trap, 
and  all!" 

"  That  so  ?  "  demanded  Wash. 

"  Certainly  so,"  replied  the  Doctor  coolly.  "  All  the 
appearance  of  being  a  large  animal.  And  that's  not 
all." 

We  stared  our  expectation  of  his  going  on  ;  and,  after 
a  rather  exasperating  pause,  he  resumed :  "  Yes,  boys,  I 
followed  it  all  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile ;  and  I  should  have 
gone  farther  but  for  what  I  heard." 

"  Did  you  hear  it  ?  "  cried  Wash. 

"  I  heard  a  most  infernal  shriek,  not  ten  rods  ahead, 
—  such  as  I  never  have  heard  from  these  lucivees  !  "  said 
the  Doctor  with  a  burst  of  vehemence  till  then  re- 


"  A  catamount ! "  exclaimed  Wash.  "  Well  you  didn't 
go  any  farther." 

"I  thought  I  wouldn't  close  in  on  him,"  explained 
the  Doctor.  "  'Twas  getting  sort  of  dusky,  you  know." 

"  Did  you  hear  it  more  than  once  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Yes :  heard  it  two  or  three  times  while  I  was  com- 
ing back  to  camp,"  with  a  forced  laugh  to  conceal  an 
involuntary  shudder.  "  It  seemed  to  come  from  up  in  a 
tree.  I  think  the  animal  has  climbed  into  a  tree-top,  — 
trap  and  all." 

"  Think  it's  there  now  ?  "  Kaed  asked. 

u  Sound  seemed  to  come  from  that  very  same  place 
the  last  time  I  heard  it,"  responded  the  Doctor. 

This  was  exciting  talk  for  a  rather  dark  evening. 

"  Best  to  go  out  there,  to  the  swamp  ?  "  Eaed  asked. 


192  LYNX-HUNTING. 

And,  but  for  some  lingering  suspicion  that  the  Doctoi 
had  drawn  (unintentionally)  on  his  imagination  a  little, 
I  doubt  whether  we  should  have  mustered  the  courage 
to  leave  our  fire. 

"  Five  of  us,  well  armed,"  observed  Wade.  "  Seems 
to  me  we  ought  to  be  .a  match  even  for  a  catamount." 

We  ate  the  steak  from  the  spider,  and  swallowed  a 
mince-pie  abstractedly,  thinking  over  the  Doctor's  story. 

"  There  ! "  exclaimed  Wash  :  "  hear  that  ?  I  do  be- 
lieve that  was  it !  " 

But  the  rest  of  us 'had  not  heard  any  thing;  and 
Wade  laughed. 

"  Boys,"  said  Raed,  "  I  move  we  go  out  there  and 
investigate." 

"  Just  what  I  was  going  to  propose  ! "  cried  the  Doc- 
tor. "  After  treeing  the  game,  I'm  not  one  to  fear  bag- 
ging it." 

The  shot-gun  was  unloaded.*  Wash  sprang  up  to  put 
a  charge  in  it. 

"  Cram  in  a  good  dose  of  buck-shot,  and  a  rifle-bullet 
top  of  Jem,  in  both  barrels,"  advised  Wade,  looking  to 
the  priming  of  the  rifle. 

"Best  to  take  Grip?  "  I  queried. 

"  By  all  means  ! "  said  Wash,  who  didn't  care  to  leave 
any  fighting  strength  behind. 

The  hound  was  let  loose.  Rackets  were  hastily  but 
firmly  bound  on.  Wade  kept  the  rifle ;  Wash  carried 
the  shot-gun ;  E/aed  took  the  stout  "  horn-beam  "  poker 
we  used  to  tend  the  fire ;  I  secured  the  axe ;  and  we 
armed  the  Doctor  with  a  formidable  maple  bludgeon. 

Thus  equipped,  we  sallied  forth,  and  went  off  to  the 


LYNX-HUNTING.  193 

swainp  on  the  Doctor's  trail,  but  following  it  with  con- 
siderable difficulty ;  for  it  had  grown  pretty  dark.  Grip 
came  on  after  us :  Wade  kept  him  behind.  It  was  a 
decidedly  lonely,  and  possibly  hazardous,  expedition.  I 
remember  that  we  spoke  in  whispers,  and  peered  cau- 
tiously ahead. 

In  places  where  the  spruces  were  thick  it  was  es- 
pecially gloomy  and  dark.  But  we  heard  not  a  sound 
till  just  as  we  were  on  the  borders  of  the  swamp  where 
the  cedar  began ;  when  a  very  discordant  screech  broke 
upon  the  stillness,  startling  us  all  from  its  suddenness. 

" Ah-r-rf  —  there  he  is!"  cried  the  Doctor,  his  teeth 
almost  chattering. 

We  stopped  to  listen  ;  and,  a  minute  later,  the  noise 
was  repeated  twice, —  a  strangely  harsh,  peculiar  scream. 
It  made  us  shudder  involuntarily.  Yet  it  seemed  to  me 
that  there  was  something  not  utterly  unfamiliar  in  the 
intonation :  still  I  had  no  idea  what  it  was,  unless  it 
was  a  panther.  Grip  started  to  howl ;  but  Wade  cut 
him  short  with  a  kick.  The  cry  was  at  a  considerable 
distance ;  and,  after  the  first  start,  we  felt  relieved  :  for 
now  we  knew,  pretty  near  at  least,  where  the  creature 
was;  and,  to  keep  our  courage  up,  we  pushed  on  as 
fast  as  we  could  for  some  minutes. 

"  We're  getting  pretty  well  on  to  where  I  first  heard 
him,"  admonished  the  Doctor.  And,  a  few  moments 
after  that,  the  screeching  began  afresh,  —  not  more  than 
two  hundred  yards  away,  apparently.  It  was  a  doleful, 
it  was  a  hideous  cry.  Quite  a  summoning  of  valor  was 
necessary  to  go  nearer.  But  fear  of  future  ridicule 

13 


194  LYNX-HUNTING. 

from  each  other  kept  us  "  up  to  the  scratch."  But  if 
there  were  not  five  hearts  drumming  away  at  a  most 
unconscionable  rate,  then  there  never  were  ! 

With  eyes  strained  to  the  utmost  extent,  we  moved 
forward  with  slow,  long  steps,  —  one,  two,  three,  a  dozen 
rods,  —  expecting  every  moment  to  see  the  creature  rise 
up  from  the  snow,  or  hear  it  screech  from  the  tree-tops 
over  our  heads.  Presently  we  did  hear  it  only  a  short 
distance  ahead,  —  a  series  of  the  most  appalling  shrieks. 
Evidently  they  issued  from  some  lofty  tree-tops,  which 
we  could  make  out  looming  indistinctly  against  the  dull 
sky ;  one  a  tall,  dark  hemlock.  I  heard  Wade  and 
Wash  cocking  the  guns.  We  had  got  within  five  or  six 
rods  of  the  butts  of  the  trees.  A  curious  noise,  as  of 
a  man  clapping  his  gloved  hands,  arrested  us. 

"  I  do  believe  he's  coming  down ! "  whispered  Raed. 
"Look  sharp!" 

We  were  all  looking  sharp  as  we  could ;  but  so  dark 
was  the  night,  that  we  could  make  out  nothing  save  the 
dense  shadow  of  the  great  kemlock-top.  Soon,  however, 
Wash  muttered  that  he  could  see  its  eyes,  —  up  toward 
the  top  of  the  tree  ;  and  then  I  even  fancied  that  I  could 
discern  two  pale  bright  spots.  No  pen  can  tell  what 
suspense  and  excitement  were  compressed  in  those  few 
seconds. 

"  Be  ready,  Wade,  with  your  rifle !  Be  ready,  boys, 
all  of  ye,  to  hit  hard !  Now,  for  Heaven's  sake,  Wade, 
don't  miss  him,  if  he  springs  ! "  Wash  muttered.  "  Fm 
going  to  fire  one  barrel ! " 

He  rested  it  against  the  trunk  of  a  near  tree.     We 


LYNX-HUNTING.  195 

all  took  a  step  back,  and  stood  grasping  our  weapons. 
A  streak  of  flame,  dazzlingly  bright  from  the  darkness, 
flashed  off.  The  report  sounded  prodigiously  loud,  I 
thought.  It  was  followed  instantly  by  a  loud  flapping 
noise.  Indistinctly  I  caught  sight  of  something  black 
passing  off  against  the  tree-tops  and  sky,  and  heard  at 
the  same  moment  a  soft  thud  into  the  snow  at  the  root 
of  the  trees ;  then  a  low  sound  as  of  something  jump- 
ing about.  We  stood  ready,  every  muscle  tense.  Grip 
dashed  past  us,  and,  despite  Wade's  recall,  ran  up.  We 
heard  him  snuff.  Then  he  came  running  back  with 
something  in  his  mouth.  E,aed  struck  a  match,  and  I 
lighted  a  pitch-pine  splint  (I  had  taken  several  of  these 
in  my  pocket). 

It  was  an  owl! 

Such  a  roar  of  hysterical  laughter  as  shook  the  air 
—  the  swamp,  I  came  near  saying  —  will  not  be  heard 
there  again,  I  will  be  bound.  The  bird  was  nearly  as 
large  as  a  goose,  —  one  of  the  veritable  "  screech-owls,"  so 
far  as  vocal  accomplishments  went ;  though  its  feathery 
tufts  led  us  to  rank  it  as  a  "  horned  owl "  (Bubo  Vir- 
ginianus). 

From  the  glimpse  I  had  obtained,  we  concluded  that 
there  had  been  two  of  them  in  the  tree,  discussing  some 
line  of  bubal  policy,  or  possibly  making  love,  when 
the  Doctor,  coming  along  on  his  cat-trail,  had  mistaken 
their  domestic  discourse  for  the  shrieks  of  a  catamount. 
But  we  had  all  been  completely  "  sold,"  and  could  not 
well  deride  him. 

After  searching  about  a  while,  we  found  the  trail  of 


196  LYNX-HUNTING. 

the  animal  that  had  dragged  off  the  trap.  It  led  past 
the  trees  where  the  owls  had  sat;  but  as  there  was 
small  prospect  of  being  able  to  come  up  with  it,  to  say 
nothing  of  our  disinclination  for  so  doughty  an  enter- 
prise, we  went  back  to  camp  —  with  our  owl. 


ELEVENTH  DAY. 

A  Regular  North-easter.  —  Building  a  Fire  in  the  Storm.  —  A  Young 
Lynx,  which  turns  out  to  be  a  Noisy  Pet. 

DURING  the  latter  part  of  the  night  it  came  on  to 
snow,  with  the  wind  north-east. 

Morning  disclosed  a  wintry  scene,  —  air  full  of  snow 
fine  as  meal,  and  driven  sharply  by  a  steady,  cutting 
blast;  weather  so  thick,  one  could  not  see  half  way 
across  the  lake ;  and  the  whole  vast  forest  whitening 
stormily.  Fire  out  entirely ;  ashes  and  coals  wet. 
Worse  still,  the  wood  was  out ;  and  another  stub  had  to 
be  felled  in  the  storm. 

To  build  a  fire  in  the  storm  was  clearly  out  of  the 
question  :  so  a  mass  of  evergreen  was  cut,  and  a  sort  of 
shed  raised  on  the  windward  side,  partially  sheltering 
the  blaze. 

More  evergreen  was  also  dragged  along,  and  piled 
about  the  doorway  of  the  camp ;  for  the  snow  drove  in 
a  little :  all  of  which  was  not,  as  may  readily  be  im- 
agined, a  very  comfortable  task  for  a  bleak  January 
morning  with  no  fire. 

But  breakfast  was  at  length  accomplished  at  a  few 

197 


198  LYNX-HUNTING. 

minutes  before  ten  ;  not,  however,  before  the  Doctor  had 
repeatedly  expressed  his  surprise  that  people  should  per- 
tinaciously persist  in  living  in  these  inclement  latitudes. 
The  thermometer  out  behind  the  camp  indicated  five 
degrees  above  ;  but  the  Doctor  no  longer  took  any  inter- 
est in  the  "  glass.'7  I  noticed,  that,  for  some  days  past, 
the  flask  in  his  breast-pocket  had  ceased  to  swash.  The 
"  quicksilver  "  was  out. 

'Twas  a  dull  day  in  every  sense.  Not  for  a  moment 
did  the  storm  cease  to  drive  and  sift.  About  three 
o'clock  we  ventured  out,  well  muffled  in  woollen  "  com- 
forters," and  proceeded  to  the  swamp.  In  one  of  the 
traps  near  the  still  open  muck-hole  there  was  a  small 
lynx:  but  the  snow  had  already  buried  the  trail 
made  by  the  Doctor's  "  catamount "  the  previous  after- 
noon ;  and  we  quite  gave  up  the  idea  of  recovering  the 
trap  it  had  carried  off.  The  lynx,  however,  we  dragged 
to  camp  through  the  snow,  and,  having  nothing  better 
to  do,  chained  it  with  the  same  with-collar  and  trap- 
chain  with  which  we  had  previously  fastened  the  rac- 
coon. The  animal  was  seemingly  a  last-spring  kitten, 
not  much  more  than  half  grown.  By  using  a  forked 
pole,  we  easily  got  the  collar  on  its  neck.  But  it  imme- 
diately began  yawling  and  wauling  in  a  most  hideous 
manner.  Raed  offered  it  a  bone  to  gnaw,  and  the  tails  of 
the  Doctor's  fish.  It  would  have  none  of  his  kindness  ; 
would  not  so  much  as  sniff  the  bone.  All  the  time  we 
were  getting  supper,  it  miawled  and  growled  frantically ; 
and,  to  enhance  the  refrain,  Grip  bayed  defiance  from  his 
corner  in  the  camp. 

We  had  it  in  mind  to  keep  the  brute  for  a  few  days. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  199 

Wash  wanted  a  chance  to  study  its  habits,  and  make  a 
drawing  of  it ;  but,  as  the  evening  advanced,  the  uproar 
became  so  unendurable,  that  he  at  length  caught  up  the 
rifle,  and,  rushing  out,  shot  it. 


TWELFTH  AND  THIRTEENTH  DAYS. 

Storm  continues.  —  "  Snow-bound."  —  Reading.  —  Bits  of  Advice 
from  the  Doctor.  —  Snow-Drifts.  —  Fishing  in  the  Storm. 

STILL  snowing,  howling,  driving,  swirling  down. 
The  dull  late  light  of  morning  found  us  half  bur- 
ied there.  The  thick  evergreen  thatch  kept  it  out  won- 
derfully well.  The  snow  drifted  into  it  all  along  on  the 
sides  and  top,  and  gradually  formed  of  itself  an  imper- 
vious roof  and  walls.  Late  the  previous  day,  we  had  in- 
creased the  height  of  our  fire-shed.  During  the  night 
we  had  taken  turns  watching  the  fire,  which,  if  kept  up 
at  all,  had  to  he  kept'  on  a  roaring  blaze,  else  the  snow 
would  put  it  out.  Any  other  wood  than  that  old  pitch- 
pine  would  hardly  have  burned  at  all.  The  wind  had 
risen  considerably,  and  blew  with  occasional  fierce  gusts. 
Our  position  was  a  rather  exposed  one,  from  the  north- 
east. But  for  our  invaluable  fuel,  we  could  have  wished 
ourselves  down  in  the  swamp. 

The  wind  whirled  a  good  deal  of  smoke  in  at  the  door- 
way, making  reading  a  tearful  pastime.  This  morning, 
the  thermometer  stood  at  one  degree  above  only.  Yet  we 
were  not  uncomfortably  cold:  we  were  getting  inured 

200 


LYNX-HUNTING.  201 

to  this  out-door  temperature.     But  the  beef,  and  indeed 
the  pies,  were  getting  suggestively  scant. 

I  can  hardly  explain  it :  but  those  chapters  of  "  Cop- 
perfield  "  read  and  discussed  during  this  storm  are  most 
vividly  of  all  impressed  on  my  memory ;  as  are  also  the 
first  three  papers  of  Tyndall's  "  Fragments  of  Science/7 
which  Wash  read  aloud,  the  rest  of  us  sitting  close 
around  him.  It  was  rather  ludicrous,  too,  to  see  a  fellow 
shed  so  many  genuine  tears  over  a  purely  scientific  work. 
As  for  the  Doctor,  he  said  very  little  (but  it  was  never- 
theless clear  that  he  had  formed  a  private  opinion  of  the 
situation),  and  perseveringly  read  f(  Love  me  Little,  Love 
me  Long/'  —  the  last  of  Wade's  stock  of  Reade.  I  se- 
cretly wondered  what  he  would  do  when  that  was  fin- 
ished. Every  few  minutes  he  would  read  us  a  passage 
aloud — one  that  he  would  deem  particularly  good — with 
the  proper  emphasis.  Occasionally  a  bit  of  advice  to  us 
would  be  suggested ;  and  he  would  break  out,  —  as,  for 
example,  "Boys,  if  you  want  to  succeed  in  life,  study 
sharp  to  know  what  are  folks'  '  pet  wishes '  and  ( dar- 
ling hopes;'  then  pat  them  on  the  shoulder,  and 
flatter  them  that  they  will  be  easily  able  to  realize  these 
—  with  a  little  of  your  help.  That's  the  way  to  get  on 
in  public  and  professional  life.  Look  at  the  '  ministers/ 
the  clergy.  They  know  that  everybody  wants  to  live 
after  death,  in  another  world ;  and  they've  always  got 
a  good  living  out  of  humanity  by  telling  them  how  they 
may  be  able  to  do  it.  Look  at  my  own  case  too.  I  hap- 
pen to  know  that  nobody  wants  to  die  ;  that  everybody 
hates  the  idea  of  death.  There's  where  I  start.  I  go 
to  work  and  get  up  a  medicine  that  will  lengthen  human 


202  LYNX-HUNTING. 

life,  —  stave  off  the  evil  day  of  death  a  while,  if  nothing 
more;  and  I  shall  get  independently  rich  out  of  it  in 
twenty  years.  Mark  my  words,  boys." 

Then  the  Doctor  would  resume  his  reading. 

Next  to  the  truculent  shrewdness  of  these  hints  were 
Raed's  well-guarded  looks  of  deep,  ineffable  disgust  with 
the  same.  Between  them,  they  furnished  a  comic  phase 
that  did  something  toward  relieving  the  tedium  of  the 
weather ;  for  we  did  not  stir  out  during  the  whole  day. 

During  the  next  forenoon  the  storm  ceased,  for  the 
most  part;  though  the  sky  still  continued  cloudy,  and 
the  wind  blew  even  harder  than  on  the  preceding  day, 
making  the  snow  fly  in  a  lively  manner.  There  had 
fallen,  we  estimated,  fully  fifteen  inches  on  a  level ;  but, 
in  many  places,  the  wind  had  drifted  it  eight  and  ten  feet 
in  depth.  At  the  foot  of  the  bluff  on  the  lake  shore 
there  was  a  prodigious  drift,  in  which  Wade  nearly  got 
smothered  while  going  down  to  the  "  hole  "  after  water. 

This  morning  we  fried  the  last  of  our  beef,  and  had 
only  one  of  the  Doctor's  fishes  left,  of  the  flesh  kind; 
and  to  remedy  this  deficit  somewhat,  if  possible,  all 
hands  sallied  out,  with  axe,  snow-shovel,  and  fishing- 
tackle,  to  make  a  draft  on  the  lake.  Our  rackets  "  cut 
in  "  badly.  It  took  near  an  hour  to  get  down  to  the 
scene  of  our  former  piscatorial  exploits.  Here  we 
found,  as  we  had  expected,  the  place  filled  with  snow. 
But  half  an  hour's  smart  labor  cleared  it ;  and,  although 
the  temperature  for  three  days  had  been  not  much 
above  zero,  there  was  but  a  film  of  ice  in  the  hole.  Wo 
had  only  some  rather  dry  shreds  of  beef  for  bait,  and 
dropped  in  with  no  great  expectations.  We  were  there- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  203 

fore  very  agreeably  surprised  to  feel  a  bite  in  less  than 
a  minute,  and  pull  out  a  pickerel  weighing  not  less  than 
three  pounds.  Five  more  were  hooked  in  the  course  of 
an  hour  j  one  of  them  a  small  togue  of  about  four  pounds, 
we  judged. 

Down  in  the  lake  the  finny  tribes  evidently  knew 
nothing,  felt  nothing,  of  the  storm,  which,  for  the  last 
three  days,  had  scourged  us  so  remorselessly;  and  we 
almost  envied  them  —  not  the  ones  we  had  caught  — 
their  retreat  as  we  faced  the  gusts  back  to  camp. 

Fish  for  supper,  —  fried. 


FOURTEENTH  DAY  (SUNDAY). 

Fourteen  Degrees  below.  —  Too  Cold  to  sleep.  —  The  Hound  in  an 
Ague  Fit.  —  Scorching  and  Freezing.  —  A  Night  long  to  be  re- 
membered. —  Seventeen  Degrees  below. 

T  I  ^HAT  night  the  thermometer  fell  to  fourteen  de- 
JL  grees  below.  The  cold  aroused  us  toward  midnight. 
It  was  too  cold  to  sleep  —  with  safety  to  fingers,  toes, 
and  noses.  The  fire  was  increased  and  trained  up 
nearer  the  doorway.  We  wrapped  ourselves  in  the 
blankets,  and  huddled  together  on  the  evergreen  just  in- 
side the  door.  It  was  too  cold  to  live  back  out  of  the 
firelight.  Grip  shivered  and  shook  and  whined.  Wade 
let  him  loose ;  and  he  immediately  cuddled  himself 
between  his  master  and  the  Doctor.  The  gusts  of  wind 
now  and  then  flared  the  fire  in  upon  us  in  scorching 
whirls  and  hot  gushes  of  smoke.  That  was  a  night  long 
to  be  remembered.  We  felt  the  near  deadly  grip  of  the 
ruthless  elements.  I  think  the  Doctor  was  a  little 
alarmed ;  for,  indeed,  we  could  not  have  endured  a  much 
greater  sinking  of  the  temperature.  In  the  morning, 
the  mercury  stood  seventeen  degrees  below.  The  wind 
continued  to  blow  till  afternoon,  —  so  sharply,  that  one 
20* 


LYNX-HUNTING.  205 

could  hardly  have  faced  it  for  three  minutes  without  freez- 
ing nose  or  cheeks.  Toward  night,  however,  the  wind 
lulled,  and  the  intense  cold  moderated  somewhat;  but 
it  was  a  chilling  night  for  all  of  that,  —  one  I  hurry  oven 
as  a  dreary  memory,  best  forgotten. 


FIFTEENTH  DAY. 

Warmer.  — Digging  out  the  Traps.  —  One  Beaver  caught,  but  fro- 
zen hard.  —  A  Lynx  shot.  —  Lynxes  and  Caribou.  —  Wade  caught 
in  a  Trap.  —  Thirteen  Degrees  above.  —  More  groaning  from 
the  Lake. 

MONDAY  morning  was  bright,  and  seemed  quite 
warm,  —  only  one  degree  below!  Beautifully 
calm,  with  the  whole  landscape  dazzlingly  white.  We 
once  more  began  to  think  of  our  traps.  Buried  under 
the  snow  we  knew  they  must  be  deeply.  To  dig  them 
out  was  plainly  the  first  and  only  thing  to  be  done. 
This  would  be  something  of  a  job ;  and  we  concluded  to 
make  two  parties.  Wash,  Wade,  and  the  Doctor  volun- 
teered to  dig  out  and  reset  those  in  the  swamp :  Kaed  and 
myself  were  to  go  up  to  the  beaver-traps.  Some  little  time 
was  consumed  in  making  a  second  snow-shovel  of  pine ; 
and  it  was  ten,  or  after,  before  we  got  started.  Walking 
slow  and  very  tiresome  ;  the  rackets  going  in  from  four 
to  five  inches,  and  "loading"  badly.  We  were  consider- 
ably over  an  hour  going  up  the  lake  to  where  the  brook 
made  in,  and  twenty  minutes  more  wallowing  up  to  the 
beaver-pond,  where  we  found  the  " houses7'  so  com- 

20G 


LYNX-HUNTING.  207 

pletely  buried  up,  that  the  mounds  were  hardly  distin- 
guishable. The  poplar-top,  too,  was  drifted  over.  The 
cold  snap  had  closed  up  the  brook  entirely  ;  and  the  ice 
was  covered  with  the  recent  snow.  We  had  to  dig  in- 
dustriously to  find  even  the  poplar-branches  to  which 
the  traps  had  been  chained,  and  then  cut  through  six 
inches  of  ice  to  raise  them.  There  was  no  appearance 
of  beaver  having  been  out  since  the  storm  :  we  were 
therefore  not  a  little  astonished,  on  attempting  to  lift 
out  the  second  trap,  to  find  in  it  a  very  heavy  animal 
coiled  up  in  a  ball,  drenched  and  drowned.  It  would 
have  weighed  fifty  pounds  for  a  guess ;  unmistakably  a 
beaver.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  carcass,  though 
lying  in  water,  was  frozen  hard.  Baed  explained  the 
phenomenon  on  the  ground  that  the  rapid  motion  of  the 
water  over  the  rocks  on  the  bottom  where  the  trap  lay 
had  alone  prevented  its  freezing,  whereas  this  motion 
had  not  been  communicated  to  the  body  of  the  beaver. 
It  would  seem  that  the  beaver  had  got  into  the  trap 
before  the  storm  came  on,  and  drowned.  The  prospect 
of  the  brook  opening  again  while  we  should  remain  was 
so  unfavorable,  that  I  thought  it  better  to  take  up  the 
traps. 

Eaed's  great  expectations  from  the  discovery  of  this 
beaver  colony  were  sadly  abated,  —  one  frozen  beaver, 
frozen  too  hard  to  skin,  though  he  carried  him  down  to 
camp  to  thaw.  From  this  individual  I  derived  the 
measurements  and  general  description  given  in  the  pref- 
ace to  this  volume. 

I  could  but  marvel  at  the  sagacity  and  providence  of 
these  animals  as  we  passed  their  snug  and  comfortable 


208  LYNX-HUNTING. 

homes  under  the  snow  and  ice,  secure  from  the  cold, 
and  stored  with  their  food ;  and  I  was  not  sorry  to  leave 
them  unmolested  for  the  future  forever.  May  it  he 
many  a  year  before  any  prowling  trapper  or  tourist 
shall  stumble  on  their  sylvan  retreat! 

Wash  and  Wade,  with  the  Doctor,  had  come  in  from 
the  swamp  before  us.  Wade  had  one  of  his  feet 
sharply  pinched  by  one  of  the  traps  springing  while  he 
was  shovelling  it  out, — just  by  way  of  letting  him 
know  how  good  it  felt,  Wash  sympathetically  remarked 
to  him;  the  Doctor  adding,  that  it  was  sometimes  a 
good  thing  for  a  man  (meaning  a  doctor,  I  suppose)  to 
take  a  dose  of  his  own  medicine.  But  they  had  shot  a 
lynx,  and  had  a  big  story  to  tell.  A  famous  place  for 
game  was  that  old  swamp  !  They  had  come  upon  three 
lynxes  devouring  the  carcass  of  a  small  caribou  (deer), 
seemingly  killed  not  many  hours  ago !  One  of  them 
they  had  shot :  the  other  two  had  run  off  at  the  report ; 
though  they  had,  till  then,  stood  their  ground,  growling 
viciously.  I  only  wish  all  our  amateur  sportsmen  could 
have  heard  friend  Wash  describe  this  adventure. 

They  had  set  all  the  traps  about  the  carcass,  save  one 
they  had  not  been  able  to  find.  Wade  was  confident  it 
had  been  carried  off  before  the  storm,  like  the  one  we  had 
lost  several  days  previously.  They  had  brought  up  a 
quarter  of  venison  from  the  caribou  carcass,  —  the 
under  hind-quarter  which  the  cats  had  not  torn. 

The  weather  had  moderated  steadily  since  noon. 

At  sunset  the  thermometer  stood  at  thirteen  degrees 
above. 

At  ten  o'clock  (evening)  it  was  darkly  overcast ;  and, 


LYNX-HUNTING.  209 

while  up  at  two  o'clock  (morning)  to  replenish  the  fire,  I 
saw  that  the  mercury  had  risen  to  nineteen  degrees 
above. 

The   same  ominous  noises  from  the  lake   which  we 
had  heard  a  week  before  had  recommenced,  though  on 
an  inferior  scale.     A  "  thaw  "  often  follows  a  "  snap  "  in 
these  latitudes.     The  sky  had  the  appearance  of  rain. 
14 


SIXTEENTH  DAY. 

A  "  Thaw."  —  Another  Trap  gone.  —  We  follow  the  Trail,  and 
come  up  with  the  Animal  in  a  Ravine.  —  A  Bear's  Den  under 
a  Jam  of  Drift-Logs.  —  The  Doctor's  Chloroform  Project.  — 
Some  Chloroformed  Bears.  —  The  Doctor  in  a  "Fix."  —  We 
try  smoking  them,  and  set  the  Jam  afire.  —  Two  captured.  — 
Remarks  on  the  Black  Bear  in  Maine.  —  Story  of  a  Bear  with  a 
White  Face.  —  Old  Mr.  Edwards's  Bear-Story. 

r  I  ^HE  morning  disclosed  a  wet  sky.  The  "hard 
JL  growth"  across  the  lake  had  taken  a  red-black 
hue.  The  noises  from  the  lake  continued  at  intervals. 
Thermometer  rising  steadity. 

A  fried  fish  and  corncake  breakfast,  then  off  to  the 
traps  set  round  the  caribou.  We  expected  game,  and 
stole  in  through  the  cedars  quietly. 

The  carcass  was  gone,  —  not  eaten  up  on  the  spot,  evi- 
dently, but  carried  off  in  a  lump.  A  trail  through  the 
snow,  marked  by  tiny  frozen  bits  of  meat,  showed 
which  way  it  had  gone,  —  a  heavy  trail,  made  by  some 
powerful  beast  assuredly.  Two  of  the  traps  lay  sprung, 
aU  in  a  heap,  just  as  they  had  rolled  off  the  carcass. 
third  was  gone,  not  with  the  caribou,  but  in  an 

210 


LYNX-HUNTING.  211 

opposite  direction,  making  a  very  distinct  trail  where 
the  clogs  had  dragged  after  it.  The  signs  were  rather 
complicated. 

"  Which  is  it  best  to  follow,  —  the  trap,  or  the  car- 
cass ?  "  questioned  Wash. 

After  some  debate,  it  was  decided  most  judicious  to 
follow  the  trap.  Grip  was  put  on  the  trail ;  and  we  fol- 
lowed on  our  snow-shoes.  The  recent  great  fall  of  snow 
had  added  to  the  difficulties  of  a  chase.  The  hound 
fairly  buried  himself  at  every  leap.  We  could  easily 
keep  pace  with  him,  and  went  on  in  this  way  for  half  a 
mile  to  where  the  old  lynx-trail  led  up  the  side  of  the 
mountain:  then  we  got  a  glimpse  of  the  animal,  resting 
on  a  log ;  but  it  instantly  bounded  off,  and  ran  on  up 
the  hollow  of  the  swamp  stream.  We  could  only  get 
momentary  sight  of  it ;  for  it  kept  fully  a  hundred  yards 
ahead,  despite  our  utmost  efforts  to  get  a  shot. 

The  bottom  of  the  hollow  was  beset  with  logs  and 
drift-stumps,  and  filled  with  a  white-ash  growth  of 
amazing  height,  though  the  trunks  were  slender.  The 
brook  roared  and  foamed  under  huge  "bridges"  of 
snow,  with  here  and  there  open  falls  and  "  races." 

The  cat  was  continually  crossing  from  one  bank  to 
the  other.  The  ravine  narrowed,  and  the  sides  grew 
steeper,  as  we  followed  it  up ;  and  ere  long  we  came  in 
sight  of  a  vast  jam  of  logs  and  stumps,  filling  the  whole 
gorge  before  us  to  the  height  of  twenty  or  thirty  feet, 
Some  heavy  freshet  had  lodged  them  here.  Beneath 
and  through  the  bottom  of  the  mass  the  brook  found  its 
way,  somehow,  with  hollow  roar  and  gurglings.  Huge 
icicles  ten  feet  in  length  hung  out  from  the  confusedly 
projecting  logs. 


212  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"Possible   the   lynx  has   got  up  over 
claimed  Wash. 

We  could  see  nothing  of  it ;  and  halted  a  moment,  lest 
it  might  be  lying  ready  to  spring  behind  some  bush  or  log. 
But  Grip  ran  on  up  to  the  foot  of  the  dam ;  and,  follow- 
ing cautiously  after  him,  we  espied  where  the  animal 
had  gone  in  between  two  great  pine-logs  near  the  bot- 
tom. 

"  A  den  ! "  cried  the  Doctor,  lumbering  up. 

The  hole  was  perhaps  three  feet  in  width,  and  looked 
as  if  it  might  lead  back  into  a  pretty  roomy  cavity. 

"  Seen  the  last  of  our  trap,  I  guess,"  Wash  remarked. 

We  were  about  approaching  nearer  to  reconnoitre  a 
little,  when  a  sudden  rumble  and  growling  sounded 
from  far  within ;  and  the  cat  as  suddenly  appeared  in  the 
mouth  of  the  opening,  snarling  savagely.  Grip  jumped 
back  a  step,  but  bayed  lustily.  The  creature  acted 
strangely  :  crouching  between  the  outer  logs,  it  glanced, 
first  at  the  dog,  then  back  into  the  den.  Wade  fired 
(he  had  the  rifle)  ;  and  the  lynx  fell  out  into  the  snow, 
trap  and  all.  A  few  licks  from  a  club  finished  it,  —  a 
rather  more  than  ordinary-sized  lucivee,  a  male. 

We  stood  looking  it  over,  and  were  about  proceeding 
to  skin  it,  when  a  surprised  snort,  like  that  of  a  fright- 
ened horse,  made  us  turn  sharply.  There,  in  the  crevice 
between  the  logs,  was  the  great  black  muzzle  and  head 
of  some  sort  of  a  beast.  As  we  turned,  it  was  quickly 
drawn  in  ;  and  we  again  heard  the  rumbling  sound. 

"  For  the  Lord's  sake  ! "  shouted  the  Doctor,  "  what 
d'ye  see  that  big  head  ?  " 

"  By ! "  muttered  Wash.     He  was  going  to  say 

Jude,  but  nipped  it  off. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  213 

"What  was  that?"  cried  Raed,  \vho  had  only  heard 
the  noise. 

From  the  glimpse  and  the  general  situation,  I  felt 
sure  it  was  a  bear,  — possibly  half  a  dozen  of  them;  for 
from  three  to  seven  are  not  unfrequently  surprised  in 
these  winter  dens.  The  snow  in  front  of  the  jam  was 
trodden  more  than  the  lynx  could  have  done.  No 
doubt  the  bears  had  been  out  at  intervals,  though  not 
much  since  the  last  snow.  We  could  fancy  a  whole 
bear  family  disporting  themselves  there  in  the  lee  of  the 
logs. 

The  boys  were  highly  elated:  so  was  the  Doctor. 
How  to  get  them  was  the  question.  We  drew  the  lynx 
away,  and  skinned  it  before  the  body  should  become 
rigid.  Grip  had  got  sight  of  the  bear's  head,  and 
was  now  eagerly  snuffing  about  the  hole. 

"  Wash,  you'll  have  to  crawl  in  there  and  shoot  'em," 
suggested  the  Doctor. 

But  Wash  said  he  had  no  ambition  to  imitate  either 
Sam  Wheeler,  or  the  more  illustrious  example  of  old 
Gen.  Put:  in  short,  he  much  preferred  an  open  war- 
fare beneath  the  smiles  of  the  heavenly  bodies  to  all 
such  subterranean  encounters. 

Wade  was  next  baited  to  undertake  the  shooting. 
We  dwelt  at  length  to  him  on  the  fact  of  his  adroit 
marksmanship,  which  would,  of  course,  make  him  per- 
fectly secure.  But  he,  too,  preferred  to  exercise  his  eye 
for  gunnery  at  a  point  not  too  far  removed  from  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth. 

Kaed  excused  himself  on  the  ground  that  lie  "  was  no 
marksman ;  never  was."  And  as  for  myself,  I  had  long 


214  LYNX-HUNTING. 

since  come  to  a  fixed  conclusion  on  this  and  all  similai 
propositions. 

Well,  wouldn't  the  Doctor  himself  go  ?  No,  —  decid- 
edly. It  would  be  highly  unprofessional  conduct ;  out 
of  his  line  of  practice  :  in  short,  it  would  be  "male-prac- 
tice" he  was  afraid,  and  himself  the  patient. 

I  thought  we  might,  perhaps,  smoke  them  out ;  but, 
come  to  fumble,  we  had  no  matches,  and  no  axe  to  split 
up  kindlings  with. 

It  was  something  of  a  tramp  back  to  camp.  But  the 
Doctor  rather  unexpectedly  offered  to  go :  and  I  volun- 
teered to  accompany  him  ;  for  I  foresaw  that  we  should 
need  dinner,  and  very  likely  supper,  before  getting 
through  with  the  bears.  "If  the  smoke  doesn't  fetch 
?em,  I  think  I  know  what  will,"  remarked  the  Doctor 
sagaciously  as  we  walked  on. 

"  What's  that  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Chloroform  ! "  exclaimed  the  Doctor. 

"  Have  you  got  some  ?  " 

"Yes:  'most  always  carry  a  little  bottle  of  it.  But 
it's  in  my  travelling-bag,  back  at  the  camp.  That's 
why  I  offered  to  come." 

I  understood,  but  asked  whether  he  felt  sure  it 
would  have  any  effect  on  bears. 

"Why  not? "he  demanded.  "Powerful  anaesthetic. 
Keel  'em  over  instanter.  Then  all  we'll  have  to  do  will 
be  to  drag  'em  out  and  slaughter  'em.  The  only  thing 
that  sticks  me  is  how  to  administer  it." 

That  was  rather  a  poser;  but  I  thought  I  saw  the 
way  out  of  it. 

"We  might  put  some  of  it  on  some  meat,"  I   sug- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  215 

gested,  —  "  some  of  that  lynx-meat,  —  and  poke  it  in  on 
a  long  pole.  Very  likely  the  bears  are  hungry.  They 
couldn't  resist  that  fresh  meat ;  and,  even  if  they 
wouldn't  eat  it,  they  would  probably  grab  at  it  to 
tear  it.  Or  you  might  tie  a  swab  on  the  end  of  a 
pole,  saturated  with  chloroform,  and  thrust  that  in. 
The  bears,  as  it  came  near  them,  would  be  sure  to  sniff, 
and  seize  it  with  their  mouths." 

The  Doctor  declared  that  this  was  the  very  way  to  do  it. 

"  We'll  have  'em,"  said  he.  "  I  wonder  hunters  have 
never  thought  of  using  ether  and  chloroform  before. 
Ah,  what  new  facilities  medico-chemistry  offers  to  all 
crafts ! " 

On  reaching  camp,  the  Doctor  secured  his  chloroform- 
bottle  j  while  I  got  matches,  the  axe,  and  did  up  what 
corn-bread  and  fish  there  was  left  from  breakfast,  and 
also  the  last  but  two  of  our  pies.  We  then  set  off  on 
our  re  turn- walk,  which  was  accomplished  in  about  an 
hour. 

During  our  absence,  the  boys  had  been  alternately 
guarding  the  den,  and  "  gumming  "  from  some  spruces 
high  up  the  sides  of  the  gorge.  The  chloroform  project 
was  rehearsed  to  them.  They  were  struck  by  its 
novelty. 

"  Why  not  try  it  first  ?  "  asked  Wash.  "  The  sooner, 
the  better." 

A  long  moose- wood  pole  was  cut,  and  a  chunk  of  the 
blue  lynx-meat  stuck  on  the  end  of  it.  The  Doctor 
then  produced  his  bottle,  and  dropped  on  something  like 
a  tablespoonful ;  and,  in  order  the  better  to  retain  it,  we 
cut  slito  in  the  meat.  None  of  the  bears,  if  indeed 


216  LYNX-HUNTING. 

there  were  more  than  one,  had  made  their  appear  anca 
since  the  first  alarm  :  all  was  quiet  in  the  den.  Yet  I 
think  it  was  not  without  some  inward  perturbations 
that  the  Doctor  drew  near,  and  ran  in  the  pole.  The 
rest  of  us  had  retired  a  little :  Wade  and  Wash  stood 
ready  to  shoot.  Very  cautiously  and  slowly  the  Doctor 
pushed  in  the  bait,  twelve,  fifteen,  twenty  feet.  Then 
came  a  rumble  and  a  snort  from  far  in.  The  pole  was 
jerked  sharply.  The  Doctor  dropped  it,  and  sprang 
away  with  cat-like  agility.  The  pole  wriggled  once  or 
twice  afterwards ;  but  no  bear  came  out. 

A  great  laugh  rose  at  the  Doctor's  expense.  (Those 
who  stand  at  a  safe  distance  are  always  very  humorous 
on  such  occasions.)  It  subsided.  The  Doctor  ventured 
up,  and  pulled  out  the  pole.  The  meat  was  gone. 

"  If  the  brute's  eaten  it,  he's  drugged  for  one  hour ! " 
exclaimed  he. 

The  question  was,  Had  he  eaten  it  ? 

"  Try  'em  with  another  chunk,"  suggested  Wash. 

Another  was  accordingly  prepared.  This  time,  the 
Doctor  was  more  courageous:  he  held  on.  It  was 
seized  or  struck,  and  tugged  at  as  before  ;  but  the  Doc- 
tor kept  hold,  even  though,  as  he  asserted,  he  heard 
them  growl. 

Two  more  pieces  of  the  meat  were  thrust  in  and 
eaten,  or,  at  least,  wrenched  off  the  pole.  I  then  sug- 
gested to  try  a  swab. 

For  this  purpose,  Wash  contributed  a  pocket-handker- 
chief, —  a  frightfully  dirty  one ;  and  Wade  tore  out  a 
part  of  his  waistcoat-lining.  These  were  wound  on,  and 
bound  tightly  to  the  en  1  of  the  pole.  The  Doctor  then 


LYNX-HUNTING.  217 

saturated  it  with  the  "  oily,  soft-smelling  "  liquid.  By 
this  time  the  whole  place  was  impregnated  with  the  odor. 
Baed  was  afraid  we  might  stupefy  ourselves  instead  of 
the  bears.  The  same  rumbling  noises  we  had  before 
heard  accompanied  the  thrusting-in  of  the  swab ;  and 
it  was  repeatedly  wrenched  and  pulled.  There  was 
some  smothered  growling,  and  a  sound  as  of  sneezing ; 
but,  on  taking  out  the  pole,  we  found  that  they  had  not 
torn  the  swab  off.  It  was  re-saturated,  and  run  in 
again.  Presently  the  wrenchings  and  cuffings  ceased. 
Thrust  it  whichever  way  we  would,  the  bears  would 
not  touch  it. 

"  Chloroformed ! "  pronounced  the  Doctor. 

We  all  thought  it  might  be  so. 

"  Well,  now,  which  of  you  is  going  in  there  to  drag 
'em  out  ?  "  he  demanded. 

We  one  and  all  demurred. 

"  Seems  to  me  I've  done  my  share  already ! "  ex- 
claimed the  Doctor.  "  I've  put  'em  to  sleep  for  ye ! " 

"  Prove  that/7  suggested  E-aed. 

"Prove  it?" 

"  Yes :  only  prove  that  they  are  really  asleep,  —  sound 
asleep,  —  and  we  will  any  of  us  go  in  and  hand  them 
out." 

"But  how  am  I  to  prove  it  further,"  demanded  the 
Doctor  rather  indignantly. 

No  one  was  at  once  able  to  answer  that;  but  at 
length  Wash  observed  that  it  looked  as  if  the  Doctor 
would  have  to  make  a  little  trial-trip  into  the  den  to 
ascertain.  The  Doctor  declared  it  was  plaguy  mean 
of  us  to  slrrk  so.  But  we  all  argued  that  he  could 


218  LYNX-HUNTING. 

hardly  expect  us  to  take  it  for  granted  the  bears  were 
asleep  on  so  slight  evidence ;  and  that,  as  he  had  as- 
sumed the  putting- asleep  part  as  his  share,  he  must 
excuse  us  for  wanting  good  proof  that  he  had  actually 
performed  it,  especially  since  the  fact  of  a  non-perform- 
ance might  be  attended  with  very  unpleasant  conse- 
quences to  us. 

"Just  a  little  trial-trip  in  where  you  can  feel  their 
pulses,  Doctor,"  insisted  Wash. 

The  Doctor  was  fairly  cornered.  Standing  committed 
as  he  did  to  the  chloroform  scheme,  he  did  not  like  to 
back  down.  He  hemmed  and  hawed  to  us  ;  but  we  in- 
sisted on  "proof,"  and  held  him  to  it.  Then  all  at 
once  he  buttoned  up  his  overcoat,  and,  going  up  close 
to  the  hole,  looked  in  earnestly.  I  did  not  believe  we 
could  get  him  in  there;  but,  as  if  from  a  sudden  im- 
pulse, he  stooped  and  crawled  in,  —  head  and  shoulders, 
—  then  drew  back. 

"  It's  awful  dark  in  there  ! "  he  muttered,  with  an  ap- 
pealing look  round  to  us ;  but  I  saw  a  gleam  of  resolu- 
tion in  his  eye. 

"  You  need  a  torch/'  I  suggested. 

"That's  so!" 

Wash  happened  to  have  a  couple  of  pitch- wood 
splints  in  his  pocket.  One  of  these  was  lighted ;  and, 
seizing  it  desperately  and  nervously  in  his  right  hand, 
the  Doctor  again  ducked,  and  crept  in  between  the  logs. 

The  boys  stood  looking  on  in  silence,  tinged  with  a 
sort  of  grim  humor.  The  Doctor  moved  with  great 
caution,  stopping  to  listen  at  every  foot.  Stooping 
down,  we  watched  him  as  eagerlj  as  amusedly.  He 


ARMS,  LEGS  AND  COAT-TAILS,  ALL  WHIRLING. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  219 

was  certainly  five  minutes  getting  in  fourteen  or  fifteen 
feet.  There  he  halted ;  and  we  could  see  him  thrusting 
out  the  torch,  first  right,  then  left.  On  a  sudden  there 
came  a  rumble  and  a  growl.  The  Doctor  jumped  back 
with  a  loud  shout.  We  all  sprang  away  to  seize  the 
axe,  and  catch  up  the  guns,  and,  turning,  saw  the  Doctor 
vault  out  from  between  the  logs,  arms,  legs,  and  coat-tails 
all  whirling.  He  went  into  the  snow,  and  rolled  over 
and  over,  as  if  anxious  to  place  all  available  distance 
between  himself  and  the  den,  regardless  of  ceremony. 
At  the  same  moment,  I  had  a  glimpse  of  a  bear's  head 
in  the  den.  The  Doctor  got  up,  cast  an  anxious  glance 
into  the  opening,  then  began  to  brush  himself. 

"  Aren't  so  sound  asleep  as  they  might  be,  are  they  ?  " 
queried  Wash. 

"  Oh,  they're  asleep  fast  enough ! "  exclaimed  the  Doc- 
tor :  "  the  trouble  is  "  (with  another  suspicious  glance  at 
the  den),  "  they  get  up  in  their  sleep  !  " 

The  chloroform  method  was  an  undoubted  failure. 

We  took  our  lunch,  and  then  decided  to  try  smoking 
them. 

A  fire  was  accordingly  built  of  dry  stumps  and  logs 
which  we  pulled  down  from  the  jam ;  and,  when  it  was 
well  burning,  we  took  brands,  and,  carrying  them  to  the 
mouth  of  the  den,  threw  them  far  in  (twelve  and  fif- 
teen feet),  one  after  another,  —  a  score  of  them.  Im- 
mediately there  was  growling.  The  brands  blazed  up 
where  they  fell;  and,  the  flame  communicating  from  one 
to  another,  there  was  soon  a  smart  fire  going.  The 
smoke  gushed  out  —  and,  we  presumed,  in  —  in  dense 
black  wreaths.  The  growls  grew  louder.  Wade  stood 


220  LYNX-HUNTING. 

with  the  rifle  cocked ;  and  we  all  drew  back.  There 
was  a  sudden  scramble,  and  out  popped  a  big  black  fel- 
low, half  blinded  with  smoke  evidently ;  for  he  jumped 
into  the  snow,  then  reared  up  on  his  haunches,  and, 
catching  sight  of  us  or  the  hound,  whirled  about,  and 
made  a  grand  effort  to  climb  up  the  side  of  the  jam. 
He  grasped  a  projecting  log  with  both  black  paws,  and 
drew  himself  upon  it ;  then  grasped  into  the  roots  of  an 
old  stump.  Wade,  standing  with  his  rifle  ready,  fired 
coolly,  and  brought  the  creature  down  with  a  ball 
through  its  back,  just  above  the  hip.  It  lay  sprawling  ; 
and  Wash  fired  a  load  of  heavy  shot  into  the  back  of 
its  head.  The  next  moment,  Grip  had  it  by  the  throat. 

We  drew  the  carcass  aside.  Smoke  was  now  stream- 
ing out  of  the  whole  great  pile  of  logs  at  every  chink ; 
but,  on  looking  in,  I  saw,  that,  in  scrambling  out,  the  bear 
had  scattered  the  brands,  and  nearly  put  the  fire  out. 

More  were  thrown  in ;  and  we  hacked  and  slivered 
the  old  pine-logs  which  formed  the  mouth  of  the  hole, 
and  set  them  on  fire.  We  were  not  sure  there  were 
others  in  the  den,  but  thought  perhaps  there  might  be ; 
and  stood  on  the  lookout,  while  the  fire  crackled  and 
streamed  up  around  the  bottom  logs.  The  pile  did  not 
immediately  take  fire.  There  seemed  to  be  a  great  deal 
of  ice  and  snow  sifted  in,  and  trickling  down  between 
the  logs;  but  it  gradually  got  under  way,  and  began 
to  roar  grandly. 

Just  then  we  heard  a  squealing  noise  nearly  or  quite 
as  sharp  as  that  of  a  pig ;  and  there  burst  out,  amidst 
the  flames  in  the  hole,  another  bear,  —  a  smaller  one,  — 
its  hair  in  a  lively  frizzle  and  smoke. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  221 

Wash  fired  at  it  the  other  barrel  of  the  shot-gun; 
when  the  frightened  beast  tacked  off  to  the  left,  and  ran 
headlong  up  the  side  of  the  ravine,  the  hound  grappling 
with  it  at  every  leap.  Finding  itself  likely  to  be  pulled 
down,  the  animal  suddenly  threw  its  paws  about  a  hem- 
lock, and  scratched  up,  making  the  bark  fly  mightily, 
and  raising  Grip  by  main  strength  six  or  seven  feet 
clear  of  the  snow ;  for  he  had  a  sharp  hold  of  its  flank. 
Reaching  the  first  branches,  it  drew  itself  upon  them, 
and  paused  to  take  breath.  Wade  at  once  shot  it. 

The  jam  was  now  burning  up  ruddily.  If  there  were 
other  bears  in  the  den,  they  perished  in  the  fire.  The 
two  we  had  killed  were  an  old  male  bear  and  a  female 
yearling  cub.  The  boys  and  the  Doctor  took  off  their 
hides,  while  I  went  down  to  the  swamp  after  our  re- 
maining two  traps  :  we  thought  it  would  be  well  to  set 
them  around  the  carcasses  of  the  bears. 

By  the  time  I  had  got  back,  the  fire  had  burned  down 
to  a  mass  of  wet  frozen  logs,  which  steamed  rather  than 
smoked.  The  boys  were  throwing  pieces  of  meat  on  the 
fire :  indeed,  I  had  smelled  the  odor  while  yet  a  long 
way  down  the  hollow,  and  thought  they  must  be  prepar- 
ing a  bear-steak.  But  Wash  explained  that  they  were 
merely  advertising  the  carcasses  to  the  noses  of  all 
neighboring  prowlers ;  and,  lest  the  presence  of  fire 
should  frighten  them,  we  drew  one  of  the  bears  ten  or 
twelve  rods  down  the  ravine.  Beside  it  we  set  the  traps, 
and  chained  them  fast. 

The  bears  we  had  killed  were  not  large :  the  old  one 
would  hardly  have  weighed  over  a  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  pounds  j  the  r:b;  less  than  a  hundred.  They  were 


222  LYNX-HUNTING. 

of  that  short-legged,  round-backed  kind  which  our  hunt- 
ers call  the  "hog-back"  bear,  in  distinction  from  the 
"  racer ; "  for  there  are  really  two  kinds  of  black  bear 
in  our  Northern  forests. 

The  "  hog-back "  is  a  small  bear,  often  found  very 
fat;  has  short  club-legs;  is  not  very  swift;  and  runs 
from  the  hunter  as  timidly  as  a  hare.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
born  coward.  In  weight  it  rarely  exceeds  two  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds. 

The  "  racer,"  on  the  contrary,  is  quite  another  sort  of 
a  beast.  These  are  the  old  fellows  of  which  hunters  tell 
such  stories,  — long-legged,  swift  as  a  moose  almost,  and 
often  attacking  a  man  at  sight.  Individuals  of  this  sort 
(racer)  have  been  reported  weighing  seven  hundred,  — • 
literally  monarchs  of  the  woods. 

I  am  not  understood  as  figuring  two  distinct  species 
(proper)  of  black  bear ;  but  I  am  inclined  to  believe 
that  these  varieties  came  originally  from  different  quar- 
ters of  the  continent.  No  doubt  they  are  now  often 
found  blending  in  characteristics. 

A  very  singular  marking  has  been  occasionally  re- 
ported of  the  racer  bear;  to  wit,  a  white  face.  (No  joke 
intended.)  In  two  instances,  the  writer  has  heard  it 
avouched  in  terms  it  would  be  difficult  to  gainsay  or 
doubt ;  one,  the  story  of  his  own  grandfather,  (and, 
if  a  fellow  doesn't  believe  his  own  grandfather,  whom 
should  he  believe  ?)  which  I  will  briefly  repeat  much  as 
the  old  gentleman  used  to  tell  it  to  me.  "  'Twas  the  first 
year  we  were  up  here.  The  country  was  all  new  then. 
My  father  (that's  your  great-grandfather)  came  in  the 
fall  before,  and  bought  this  place  of  one  John  Clives, 


LYNX-HUNTING.  223 

who  had  made  a  clearing  here  two  years  before.  Old 
John  had  got  up  a  frame-house,  twenty  by  thirty,  —  a 
very  comfortable  one  in  those  days.  You  can  see  where 
the  old  cellar  used  to  be  out  there.  The  only  neighbor 
within  three  miles  was  Jefferson  Edwards,  who  had 
begun  over  there  where  the  Edwardses  live  now. 
There  were  about  twenty  acres  in  our  clearing,  all  cov- 
ered with  stumps  and  stubs  :  they've  rotted  away  since. 
Father  felled  ten  acres  more  in  the  fall  after  he  bought. 
It  was  along  there  under  the  mountain,  what  we  now  call 
the  ' south  field; '  and,  when  we  came  in  the  spring,  that 
was  about  our  first  work,  —  cutting  and  piling  that  to  get 
it  ready  to  burn.  My  brother  William  and  my  brother 
Ezekiel  were  both  older  than  I.  We  used  to  take  our 
( stints,'  —  to  cut  and  pile  so  much  each  day.  It  was 
very  hot  and  dry  that  spring ;  and,  when  we  burned  it 
off,  the  fire  got  into  the  woods,  and  raged  for  a  week. 
But  wood  was  of  little  account  then.  After  burning  it, 
we  planted  it  to  corn ;  but  we  didn't  have  to  prepare 
the  ground  as  they  do  now.  It  was  rich  enough  of 
itself  to  bear  any  thing  then.  We  didn't  plough  it : 
just  went  along,  dropped  the  corn,  and  scraped  a  hand- 
ful of  dirt  over  it:  that  was  enough.  There  were  no 
weeds,  either.  All  the  care  it  needed  was  to  go  about 
with  a  bush-hook,  and  cut  up  the  sprouts  about  the 
stumps.  I  say,  all  the  care:  I  mean  by  that  all  the 
hoeing ;  for  it  did  need  a  good  deal  of  care  in  one  sense. 
It  seemed  as  if  every  sort  of  bird  and  beast  had  a  claim 
on  it.  In  the  spring,  the  crows  and  squirrels  dug  up 
the  seed  almost  as  fast  as  we  could  plant.  We  had  to 
put  some  of  it  in  the  third  time  j  but  it  came  on  after 


224  LYNX-HUNTING. 

a  while,  and  grew  wonderfully.  I've  never  seen  such 
corn  since. 

"As  soon  as  it  was  in  the  'milk/  another  struggle 
began  for  the  corn.  A  perfect  army  of  squirrels  came 
into  it.  It  did  no  good  to  shoot  them :  there  were 
too  many  for  that.  Father  used  to  keep  Zeke  and  me 
down  there  walking  back  and  forth  along  the  log-fence 
with  an  old  bell  and  a  tin  pan,  drumming  and  ringing 
to  keep  them  out.  The  fence  was  alive  with  chip- 
munks and  red  squirrels,  running  with  their  mouths 
full  of  corn.  The  gray  squirrels  carried  a  whole  ear  at 
once ;  but  they  were  shy,  and  not  as  plenty.  Then  there 
was  another  larger  squirrel,  nearly  as  large  as  a  cat. 
They  had  beautiful  bushy  tails,  black  as  jet. 

"Blue-jays  and  flocks  of  blackbirds  were  continually 
lighting  down.  It  didn't  take  them  long  to  swallow  a 
bushel. 

"These  were  the  enemies  by  day;  but  the  night 
turned  out  a  worse  tribe.  A  parcel  of  raccoons  from  the 
great  ledge  up  there  used  to  come  down  every  night 
to  feast  upon  the  soft  corn.  We  could  always  tell  them 
by  their  curious  track :  it  looked  just  like  a  little  child's 
bare  foot.  We  caught  several  in  traps,  —  cunning- 
visaged  fellows.  They  are  of  a  gray  color,  and  nearly 
as  large  as  a  fox. 

"  It  was  now  about  the  middle  of  September,  and  the 
corn  had  got  nearly  ripe  enough  to  cut  up ;  when  one 
morning,  as  we  went  into  the  field  to  begin  our  music, 
we  came  upon  a  large  track,  and  saw  all  around  where 
the  corn  had  been  crushed  down  and  eaten.  In  some 
spots  it  was  all  flat  for  rods.  We  had  thought  the 


LYNX-HUNTING.  225 

'coons  bad  enough ;  but  what  they  had  done  was  noth- 
ing compared  to  the  wholesale  work  of  the  past  night. 
These  tracks  were  as  long  as  those  made  by  a  large 
shoe,  and  much  broader.  They  were  trodden  deeply 
too,  and  had  the  print  of  large  toes. 

"  There  were  smaller  ones  of  the  same  sort  in  other 
parts  of  the  field.  Three  bears  of  different  size  had 
been  there  during  the  night.  One,  rather  small,  had 
gone  along,  breaking  down  the  stalks,  and  eating  the 
ears ;  another,  larger,  had  sat  between  the  rows,  and 
pulled  the  corn  to  him  on  both  sides ;  but  the  third, 
the  one  that  made  the  big  track,  had  walked  along  like 
a  horse,  biting  out  an  ear  here  and  there  at  a  mouthful, 
leaving  the  husks  stripped  down.  It  looked  as  if  he 
had  l  been  getting  roasting-ears,'  Zeke  said.  On  hear- 
ing our  story  at  noon,  father  went  down.  Edwards  hap- 
pened to  be  over,  and  went  down  with  us.  They  both 
stared  at  the  sight  of  the  big  track. 

"  '  That  was  an  old  racer/  said  Edwards ;  '  one  of  the 
tall,  long-legged  sort/ 

"  The  others,  they  said,  were  small  bears,  such  as  they 
used  to  call  '  hog-backs.' 

"  '  You'd  better  watch  to-night/  said  Edwards. 
'  Perhaps  you'll  get  a  shot  at  some  of  them ;  though 
I  declare,'  said  he,  examining  the  track,  '  I  shouldn't 
care  about  facing  that  one.  You'd  find  him  as  tall  as  a 
colt ;  and  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  he  would  weigh  six  or 
seven  hundred  pounds.  They'll  outrun  a  horse.  Power- 
ful animal.  I  saw  one  once.' 

"  But  we  didn't  watch  that  night.  We  were  all  pretty 
tired ;  and  father  said  we  would  wait  one  night,  and  see. 

15 


226  LYNX-HUNTING. 

And  the  next  morning  we  did  see  —  worse  damage  than 
the  night  before. 

" '  Something  must  be  done,  boys/  said  father. 
'  Never  saw  such  work  ! ' 

"  The  corn  was  broken  down  in  every  direction. 

"  <  We'll  watch  to-night,  Jud.  You  and  Zeke  wash 
out  the  guns.  See  that  the  flints  are  in  right.  And 
you  run  some  bullets,  William/ 

"  We  had  three  guns.  One  was  an  old  United-States 
piece,  with  large  gripes  along  the  barrel :  the  second 
was  what  they  called  a  French  gun,  —  one  of  those 
taken  from  the  French  when  the  New-England  folks 
took  Louisburg :  the  third  was  mine,  —  a  little  shot- 
gun, good  for  squirrels  a  rod  or  two  off. 

"  Soon  after  dark,  we  went  down  to  the  field.  We 
didn't  expect  the  bears  before  ten  or  eleven  o'clock ;  but 
we  meant  to  be  before  them. 

"  The  field  was  narrow,  and  very  long,  —  nearly  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile.  The  bears  had  been  in  at  both  ends.  So 
father  was  to  take  his  place  at  the  farther  end,  with  the 
old  United-States  piece ;  Will  the  upper  end,  with 
his  French  gun  ;  while  I  was  to  go  midway,  —  in  the 
safest  place,  they  said.  There  was  no  gun  for  Zeke  :  so 
he  armed  himself  with  the  pitchfork,  and  stood  by  Will. 
In  this  way  we  were  over  fifty  rods  apart. 

"  i  Here,  Jud,'  said  father  as  we  came  near  the  middle 
of  the  piece,  — '  here's  a  good  place  for  you.  Sit  down 
here  behind  this  clump  of  basswood-sprouts.  I  don't 
much  think  they'll  come  in  here ;  but  sit  still  and 
watch.  Don't  fire  unless  you  see  a  bear.' 

"  Then  he  went  on,  leaving  me  to  watch  and  listen- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  227 

An  hour  passed,  —  a  pretty  long  one.  All  was  still  as 
the  grave.  But  I  had  a  nice  snug  place  among  the 
green  basswood.  The  leaves  were  thick  and  large  as 
dinner-plates.  I  was  expecting  every  minute  to  hear 
the  gun  of  father  or  Will.  All  at  once,  I  heard  some- 
thing behind  me  in  the  corn:  but  it  was  father  coming 
along  to  see  if  we  were  all  right  j  and  pretty  soon  he 
went  back  to  his  place. 

"  Another  hour  went  by.  The  moon  had  now  risen ; 
but  it  was  a  little  hazy,  and  the  light  was  rather  dim. 
Several  owls  were  hooting  off  in  the  woods ;  and  now 
and  then  I  could  hear  the  long  yell  of  a  '  bobcat '  wan- 
dering about  in  search  of  his  supper.  I  began  to  get 
rather  lonesome.  Suddenly  there  was  a  crack  in  the 
brush  below  me  in  the  woods,  as  if  a  large  stick  had 
broken.  I  crouched,  listening  intently,  and  presently 
heard  a  loud  woosh,  —  a  sort  of  snort,  as  you've  heard 
a  horse  after  running  in  a  frolic ;  and  soon  the  brush 
cracked  again,  —  nearer  this  time.  I  knew  some  heavy 
animal  was  coming.  I  was  scared  enough ;  but  they 
had  laughed  at  me  so  much,  I  resolved  not  to  run  until 
I  had  a  chance  to  fire.  The  cracking  had  stopped  ;  and 
the  same  snorting  noise  was  repeated,  as  if  the  bear  had 
smelled  me.  I  peered  through  the  sprouts,  with  my 
gun  cocked  ready  to  fire.  There  stood  a  huge  creature, 
not  a  rod  off,  with  its  head  up,  snuffing,  and  looking 
into  the  bush. 

"But  could  that  be  a  bear?  His  face  was  as  white 
as  a  white-faced  calf,  though  the  rest  of  his  body 
looked  black  enough.  He  took  a  step  towards  me. 
I  pulled  the  trigger,  and  ran  for  dear  life.  I  scarcely 


228  LYNX-HUNTING. 

knew  whether  my  gun  had  gone  off  or  not ;  but  I  fan- 
cied I  heard  another  snort  hehind  me.  I  ran  head- 
long through  the  corn,  toward  the  house. 

" '  Is  that  you,  Jud  ?  '  cried  a  voice  in  front  of  me. 

"  It  was  Will  and  Zeke  coming  down  at  the  sound  of 
my  gun.  I  stopped,  and  gasped  out  my  story.  They 
didn't  care  to  hurry  down  there  :  so  we  all  stood  wait- 
ing for  some  sign  from  the  bear.  Just  then  we  heard 
father  shout  from  the  place  where  I  had  been  ;  and  then 
we  went  down. 

"  <  Who  fired  ? '  asked  he.     <  Was  it  you,  Jud  ? ' 

"  '  Yes ;  Jud  fired,  and  ran/  said  Will.  '  He  waa 
making  a  bee-line  for  the  house,  when  we  stopped  him.' 

" '  I  guess  he  didn't  run  any  too  soon,'  said  father. 
'  Look  at  those  sprouts !  See  how  they  are  broken 
down ! ' 

"  Sure  enough,  the  clump  in  which  I  had  been  hidden 
was  crushed  flat ;  and  the  next  day  we  saw  large  tracks 
about  it,  and  there  was  a  drop  of  blood  on  one  of  the 
leaves:  so  I  could  boast  of  hitting  him.  But  where 
did  he  go  so  quick  ?  Nobody  had  seen  him  but  me ; 
and  my  story  of  his  white  face  found  no  favor  with  any- 
body. Father  and  the  boys  wouldn't  believe  a  word  of 
it;  and  Edwards  laughed  as  if  he  would  split  when 
they  told  him. 

" '  Tell  us  any  thing  but  that,  Jud,'  said  he,  '  and 
we'll  believe  it ;  for  you're  a  plucky  little  fellow  to  face 
him  at  all  with  such  a  gun  as  that.' 

"  The  next  night,  father  shot  one  of  the  hog-backs  in 
the  corn.  The  wicked  little  face  of  that  one  was  black 
enough ;  and,  after  that,  my  white-faced  bear  became  a 


LYNX-HUNTING.  225 

worse  joke  than  ever.  So  I  said  no  more  z,bout  it; 
though  I  was  very  far  from  believing  that  it  was  'all 
moonshine/  as  they  told  me. 

"  We  got  in  our  corn  not  long  after  that.  There  was 
a  fine  crop,  though  nearly  every  thing  had  had  a  share 
in  it. 

"  Well,  winter  passed ;  and  the  next  spring  we  began 
to  lose  sheep.  Hay  had  come  out  short,  and  we  had 
turned  the  sheep  out  early.  We  used  to  find  their  pelts 
nicely  rolled  up  out  in  the  woods,  and  saw  the  same 
large  tracks  about  that  we  had  seen  in.  the  cornfield. 
Edwards  was  in  the  same  fix  too. 

" '  It's  bear's  work,'  said  he.  e  Some  old  fellow  has 
come  out  of  his  winter  den  with  a  good  appetite  for 
mutton.  He'll  have  all  of  our  sheep  if  we  don't  look 
out.  I'll  watch  to-morrow,  if  you'll  do  the  same  next 
day.' 

«  We  gladly  agreed  to  that,  and  so  the  matter  stood. 
Well,  just  at  dusk  the  next  night,  Mrs.  Edwards  saw 
a  bear  come  among  their  flock,  which  was  nibbling  near 
the  edge  of  the  woods.  He  took  a  sheep,  and  was  off  in 
a  moment.  She  called  Edwards,  who  was  in  the  barn. 
He  caught  up  his  gun ;  and  they  both  ran  after  the 
bear  into  the  forest,  hoping  to  make  him  drop  the 
sheep.  It  was  quite  dark  in  the  woods ;  and,  as  they 
ran  on,  they  suddenly  saw  the  bear  coming  back  to 
meet  them.  He  had  dropped  the  sheep,  but  not  in  the 
way  they  had  expected.  Edwards  fired  at  him ;  but 
somehow,  in  his  hurry  or  fright,  he  missed  him.  He  was 
always  a  nervous  man.  On  came  the  bear ;  and  they 
were  now  glad  to  run  from  him  as  fast  as  they  had  ruij 


230  LYNX-HUNTING. 

after  him.  He  chased  them  clean  into  their  house.  In 
the  scrimmage,  Edwards  had  lost  the  flint  out  of  his  old 
gun,  and  couldn't  use  that.  I  suppose  the  bear  did 
actually  keep  them  in  the  rest  of  the  night. 

" '  Twas  a  tremendous  fellow ! '  said  Edwards  the  next 
morning  when  he  told  us ;  '  and,  Jud,'  said  he,  turn- 
ing to  me  as  he  went  out,  <  I  shall  have  to  own  that  he 
had  a  white  face,  or  something  very  much  like  it.' 

"  The  next  day  we  lost  another  sheep ;  and  it  was  then 
decided  to  give  up  work,  and  hunt  the  bear  down. 

" ( It's  the  only  thing  we  can  do  now,'  said  Edwards. 
'  We've  got  to  kill  him,  or  he  will  us.' 

"  So  the  next  day  we  started  after  him,  —  five  of  us, 
with  the  two  dogs.  We  soon  found  where  he  had  eaten 
the  sheep.  There  was  the  pelt  lying  just  where  he  had 
taken  it  off ;  and  towards  nightfall  we  came  up  with 
him.  He  had  turned  upon  the  dogs,  and  sat  facing 
them,  as  if  he  were  very  much  surprised  at  their  sauci- 
ness ;  for  there  was  a  look  of  great  contempt  on  his 
broad  white  face,  —  white  enough  now,  as  we  all  could 
see.  He  drew  himself  up,  bear  fashion,  when  he  saw 
us,  and  stood  his  ground.  We  all  cocked  our  guns. 

" '  You  fire  first,  Edwards,'  said  father ;  '  and  we  will 
stand  ready  in  case  you  don't  kill  him.' 

"  Edwards  fired.  The  ball  struck  the  old  fellow  in  the 
shoulder,  whirling  him  half  round ;  but  in  an  instant 
he  recovered  himself,  and  came  at  us.  Will  and  I 
blazed  away  with  our  buckshot ;  but  he  would  certainly 
have  hugged  some  of  us  if  father  had  not  made  a  sav- 
ing shot  just  in  the  nick  of  time.  He  kept  his  fire  till 
the  bear  was  within  ten  feet;  then  gave  him  a  ball  from 


LYNX-HUNTING.  231 

the  old  United-States  piece  straight  through  the  breast. 
That  settled  him. 

"He  was,  as  Edwards  had  said,  a  ' regular  racer.' 
Though  not  very  fat,  he  dressed  off  four  hundred  and 
thirty  pounds.  His  legs  seemed  twice  the  length  of 
the  hog-backs  which  we  killed  the  fall  before.  But  the 
most  peculiar  thing  about  him  was  his  white  face.  It 
was  as  white  as  milk ;  and  his  muzzle  had  that  clear 
pink-color  you  often  see  in  white-faced  cattle.  I  al- 
ways thought  it  was  the  one  I  saw  in  the  corn-field. 
There  were  several  little  scars  that  looked  like  shot- 
marks  on  his  nose.  His  being  fired  at  so  much,  and 
missed,  or  only  slightly  wounded,  accounted  for  his 
boldness,  and  the  fierceness  with  which  he  turned  upon 
us.  The  fact  that  I  did  really  see  a  white-faced  bear 
was  thus  proved." 

And  I  should  certainly  err  were  I  to  omit  the  bear- 
story  of  old  Mr.  Edwards  (son  of  the  above),  —  the  one 
he  always  tells  the  boys.  (But  perhaps  our  girl-readers 
had  better  —  But,  of  course,  no  girl  will  ever  read  this 
book.) 

I  shall  try  to  straighten  out  the  old  man's  English  a 
little ;  which  is,  I  regret  to  say,  of  a  rather  sorry  sort. 

"  It  was  when  I  was  a  boy,"  he  says.  "  The  neighbor- 
hood where  our  folks  lived,  up  in  Franklin  County,  had 
lately  been  cleared  up. 

"  There  were  three  families  beside  my  father's  folks. 
We  all  lived  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  each  other. 
The  Wilbers  were  our  nearest  neighbors  on  one  side,  — • 
a  great  family  of  girls  and  boys;  and,  of  the  latter, 
Sam  and  Sol  tt  ^re  about  my  age.  We  used  often  to  go 


232  LYNX-HUNTING. 

gunning  together;  and  one  fall  we  took  it  into  our 
heads  to  go  up  to  Loon  Pond,  a  small  lake  about  five 
miles  above  our  place,  to  see  if  we  couldn't  shoot  an 
otter  or  a  few  minks. 

"  It  was  all  woods  about  the  pond  then  ;  but  we  were 
used  to  woods. 

"  I  remember  just  what  a  beautiful  afternoon  it  was. 
The  leaves  were  turning  yellow  and  red;  and  the 
squirrels  were  running  and  chittering  in  every  direction. 
We  came  out  on  the  pond-shore,  and  went  along  for  as 
much  as  a  mile,  and  then  came  back,  without  getting 
any  thing  but  a  couple  of  muskrats.  Probably  we  made 
too  much  noise  for  the  mink  or  otter. 

"  The  water  was  very  low ;  and  at  one  place  the  shore 
was  a  bed  of  white  sand.  Bight  opposite  this,  out 
eight  or  ten  rods,  was  a  sort  of  bar  of  sand  and  pebbles, 
which  was  just  above  the  water. 

"  The  afternoon  sun  shone  in  warm ;  and  altogether 
it  looked  so  nice  and  inviting,  that  we  concluded  to  go 
in  swimming.  So  we  laid  down  our  guns  across  an  old 
log,  and  undressed  ;  each  leaving  his  little  gray  pile  of 
jacket  and  pants  topped  out  with  his  white  shirt.  In 
a  moment  more  we  were  splashing  and  wading  off 
towards  the  sand-bar.  The  water  in  the  deepest  place 
between  that  and  the  shore  was  just  up  to  our  mouths. 

"We  got  on  to  the  bar  without  swimming;  then 
jumped  in  on  the  other  side,  took  a  turn  out  and  back, 
and  were  standing  on  it,  skipping  stones  out  into  the 
pond,  when,  all  of  a  sudden,  a  noise  on  the  shore  behind 
us  made  us  all  three  look  round  together. 

"Two   black   creatures,   about  as  large  as  fair-sized 


LYNX-HUNTING.  233 

dogs,  only  chubbier,  were  snuffing  at  Sol's  clothes,  — « 
snuffing,  and  pawing  them  over. 

" e  Gracious ! '  exclaimed  Sam.     '  Bears  ! ' 

"  '  Eight  between  us  and  the  guns ! '  cried  Sol. 

"  We  stared  in  no  little  alarm. 

"'Don't  be  scared/  said  I,  getting  courage  as  I 
looked :  ( they're  little  chaps.  Guess  we  can  drive 
them  off.  Let's  yell  at  them.' 

"  So  we  began  to  screech,  and  splash  into  the  water. 
The  bears  drew  back  toward  the  alders,  sniffing  with 
extended  muzzles,  as  if  uncertain  about  us.  We  re- 
doubled our  hurrahs,  and  ran  into  the  water  half  way 
to  the  shore.  But,  in  the  midst  of  our  paw-wow,  we 
suddenly  heard  a  great  smashing  among  the  bushes ;  and 
out  bounded  another  bear,  twice  as  large  as  either  of  the 
first  ones. 

"  'Twas  all  plain  enough  to  us  now,  —  an  old  bear 
and  two  half-grown  cubs. 

"  The  moment  we  saw  the  old  one,  we  knew  we  had 
got  our  match.  She  ran  directly  down  to  the  edge  of  the 
water ;  and  we  were  glad  to  scramble  back  to  the  bar. 

"  The  old  bear  then  ran  to  our  clothes,  and  began  to 
scratch  them  over,  —  not  very  gently :  we  could  hear 
rips  as  she  scratched  on  them  like  a  dog.  She  next  ran 
to  examine  the  guns,  smelled  of  them,  didn't  like  them 
at  all,  and  turned  round,  growling,  to  the  water  again. 

"  '  What's  to  be  done?  '  said  Sol. 

" '  Stone  them ! '  exclaimed  Sam,  catching  up  a  hand- 
ful of  large  pebbles. 

"  We  went  at  it,  and  let  the  stones  fly  good.  Ever  so 
many  hit  them  5  and  the  cubs  fairly  took  to  the  bushes 


234  LYNX-HUNTING. 

But  it  only  made  the  old  one  more  mad.  She  kept 
rushing  down  to  the  water,  threatening  to  swim  out  to 
us. 

"  We  kept  the  stones  flying  for  a  number  of  minutes, 
and  then  waited  a  long  time.  The  old  torment  wouldn't 
budge,  but  sat  there  watching  us,  just  as  if  she  knew 
she  had  us  in  a  tight  place. 

"  How  to  get  our  clothes  and  get  away  was  a  tough 
problem. 

"  '  If  we  only  had  the  guns ! '  we  kept  saying.  But 
that  was  just  where  the  bear  had  the  inside  track  of  us. 

" '  Only  one  way/  said  Sam  at  last.  '  We  must 
swim  across  to  the  other  side.  Have  to  stay  here  all 
night  if  we  don't.' 

"It  was  about  a  hundred  rods  to  the  other  shore. 
We  stood  dreading  it  some  time ;  but,  as  there  was  no 
other  way,  we  finally  plunged  in,  taking  Sol  between 
Sam  and  myself.  He  wasn't  quite  so  easy  in  the  water 
as  we. 

"  It  was  a  pretty  long  pull ;  but  we  got  to  the  shore  at 
last ;  and  after  resting  a  few  minutes,  and  seeing  that 
the  bear  had  not  left  the  other  shore,  we  started  for 
home. 

"  Beats  all  how  easy  a  chap  can  run  without  his  clothes 
on  !  We  weren't  more  than  an  hour  legging  it  round 
the  head  of  the  pond,  and  down  to  the  clearing  back  of 
Mr.  Wilber's. 

"  But  here  a  new  bugbear  came  up.  We  didn't  dare 
to  go  down  to  the  house  in  our  present  state ;  but,  as 
the  barn  stood  some  distance  back  of  the  house,  we  at 
length  made  for  it,  and,  getting  in  through  the  sheep- 


LYNX-HUNTING.  235 

hole  on  the  back-side,  hunted  round,  hoping  to  find 
some  old  coat  or  something  to  rig  up  in.  There  was 
nothing,  however,  hut  a  meal-bag. 

"  After  some  deliberation,  we  ripped  a  hole  in  the  bot- 
tom of  it  for  Sam's  head  to  go  through,  and  two  more 
in  the  sides  for  his  arms.  He  put  it  on,  and,  thus 
equipped,  sallied  into  the  house.  Sol  and  I  climbed  up 
on  the  haymow  to  be  out  of  sight. 

"Ere  many  minutes,  Sam  came  back  with  some 
clothes,  which  we  hastily  donned. 

"There  was  a  great  giggling  among  the  girls  when 
we  came  out  dressed. 

"  The  next  morning  we  borrowed  some  guns,  and  went 
back  up  to  the  pond.  The  bears  had  gone.  We  found 
our  clothes  somewhat  torn,  and  well  trampled  into  the 
sand.  The  guns  were  where  we  had  set  them." 


SEVENTEENTH  DAY. 

Cold  again. — Yet  Another  Lynx,  and  a  Third  Trap  gone  — 
The  Hound  at  Fault.  —  We  come  to  the  End  of  the  Trail.  —  A 
Long  Jump.  —  The  Doctor's  Opinion  ;  also  Wash's.  —  The  Gas- 
well  and  Parlin  Adventure.  —  Old  Sabattus's  Panther-Story.  — 
His  Squaw.  —  His  Dog. 

IT  cleared  off  "  squally  "  during  the  night ;  and  there 
fell,  perhaps,  an  inch  of  snow  and  hail.  Last  pie 
but  one  for  breakfast,  on  a  substantial  basis  of  fried 
pickerel  and  corn-cake ;  the  only  ingredients  of  which, 
except  meal,  were  water  and  salt.  Not  sumptuous. 
Then  off  to  examine  our  traps  set  about  the  bear  car- 
cass. Grip  ran  on  ahead  as  we  entered  the  hollow. 
Yesterday's  trail  had  frozen  hard  enough  to  bear  him. 
We  heard  him  bark  sharply,  and  then  rapidly. 

"  Game  in  the  traps  !  "  said  Wash. 

Coming  in  sight,  we  saw  a  lucivee  standing  on  the 
carcass,  with  its  back  up  at  the  hound.  Wouldn't  budge 
for  him ;  but,  the  instant  it  caught  sight  of  us,  it 
turned  and  ran.  Not  fast  in  the  trap  by  any  means. 
Yet  the  hound  followed  it  so  closely,  that,  a  few  rods  far- 
236 


LYNX-HUNTING.  237 

ther  up  the  ravine,  it  ran  up  one  of  the  tall  ashes  to  the 
very  top,  —  more  than  a  hundred  feet. 

Wade  fired  at  it  with  the  rifle ;  and  Wash  followed 
with  both  barrels  of  the  shot-gun :  but  still  it  held  on. 
The  shot  brought  down  a  perfect  mist  of  fur.  Wade 
reloaded,  and  started  to  climb  up  the  side  of  the  hollow, 
to  be  more  on  a  level  with  it ;  when  it  suddenly  dropped 
heavily,  —  quite  dead. 

We  turned  to  the  traps.  One  was  sprung,  with  a  few 
gray  hairs  clinging  to  the  jaws:  the  other  was  gone. 
The  fid  and  seven  links  were  still  on  the  sapling  to 
which  we  had  chained  it :  the  eighth  link  had  broken 
or  pulled  open.  We  had  supposed  the  chain  strong 
enough  to  hold  even  a  bear.  There  were  a  number 
of  large  tracks  about  the  carcass,  and  a  trail  leading  off 
to  the  left  up  the  side  of  the  gorge;  but  the  tracks 
and  trail  had  been  made  early  in  the  night,  before  the 
snow-squall,  which  had  partly  filled  them  up.  Evidently 
the  lynx  we  had  just  shot  had  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

The  tracks  were  large;  but  a  lynx  makes  a  pretty 
large  track. 

We  were  vexed  with  the  loss  of  another  trap,  and  im- 
mediately laid  on  the  hound.  Away  he  went  up  the 
side  of  the  hollow ;  and  we  followed,  climbing  by  aid 
of  the  tree-trunks.  At  the  top  of  the  bank  the  track 
diverged  to  the  right,  and  led  off  toward  the  mountain. 
We  went  on  for  perhaps  a  third  of  a  mile  up  rising 
ground,  the  hound  now  a  long  way  in  advance:  then, 
quite  abruptly,  his  baying  ceased.  For  the  next  hun- 
dred yards  we  heard  nothing  of  him. 

"  I  don't  understand  tlr's,"  said  Wade. 


238  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  Why,  there  he  is  now ! "  exclaimed  Raed  suddenly. 

Grip  was  standing  in  the  trail  a  few  yards  off,  looking 
at  us  rather  sheepishly. 

"  Bolted  the  trail ! "  cried  the  Doctor.     "  The  cur  !  " 

Wade  didn't  believe  that  slander. 

Grip  turned  as  we  came  toward  him,  and  ran  on  again. 
About  twenty  rods  farther,  we  came  up  in  sight  of  a 
long,  overhanging  ledge. 

"Another  den,  I'll  bet ! "  groaned  Wash. 

The  snow  had  dropped  over  the  rocks,  and  lay  in  a 
long  drift  at  their  base,  but  not  to  such  height  as  to 
conceal  the  gray  face  of  the  ledge,  extending  off  on  both 
sides  till  lost  to  sight  among  the  spruces.  From  the 
top  of  the  drift  up  to  the  top  of  the  rock  where  it  jutted 
out  was  a  space  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  feet  all 
along.  The  trail  led  up  on  to  the  drift ;  and  there 
stood  the  hound  waiting  for  us,  with  a  puzzled  look 
which  seemed  to  say,  "  I  don't  know  what  to  make  of 
this.  Do  you?" 

We  saw  that  the  trail  ended  right  under  where  the 
dog  sat,  and  glanced  along  the  bottom  of  the  ledge.  It 
was  one  solid  wall  of  coarse  mica  schist. 

"  No  signs  of  a  den,"  said  Wade. 

"  It  can't  be  possible  the  animal  has  jumped  to  the 
top,"  remarked  Raed,  taking  a  step  back  to  look  up. 

"  But  he  has,  fellows ! "  he  immediately  exclaimed. 
"  There's  his  track  at  the  top,  in  the  snow  there !  " 

We  all  stepped  back  from  under,  and  stared.  The 
beast  had  gone  up  at  a  single  spring.  The  distance 
was  somewhere  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet :  could  not 
have  been  under  seventeen,  I  think. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  239 

It  gave  us  a  queer  sensation,  the  sight  of  this  grand 
evidence  of  muscular  energy. 

"  Boys,"  said  the  Doctor,  "  I  think  we've  followed 
this  beast  plenty  far  enough.  I  move  we  adjourn  sine 
die." 

We  all  edged  away,  half  expecting  to  see  the  fierce 
head  of  the  prowler  appear  over  the  brow  of  the  ledge. 
Grip  followed,  still  wearing  his  seriously-puzzled  expres- 
sion. I  do  not  expect  he  ever  understood  it  exactly. 

Of  course,  Wash  thought  it  was  a  catamount.  And  it 
did  look  a  little  like  it \  for  no  lynx  could  possibly  have 
leaped  to  such  a  height  with  the  trap  on  its  foot. 

We  went  back  to  camp,  taking  the  lynx-pelt  along, 
and  somehow  felt  sort  of  "  queerish  "  as  night  came  on. 
The  prodigious  leap  up  the  ledge  reminded  us  unpleas- 
antly of  the  Caswell  and  Parlin  adventure  up  on  the  St. 
John's  a  few  years  since.  They  were  following  on  the 
fyail  of  a  caribou  they  had  wounded,  which  at  length 
led  down  into  the  river-valley,  where  maple  and  ash 
took  the  place  of  the  spruce-growth.  Not  many  years 
previously,  a  whirlwind  had  swept  through  that  section. 
Many  of  the  great  ashes  had  been  broken  off  or  partially 
uprooted,  and  lodged  in  the  tops  of  others. 

They  had  gone  four  or  five  miles,  and  still  the  trail 
led  on  over  fallen  trunks,  and  through  bushy  thickets 
df  hazel  and  alder,  which  they  had  to  walk  around  to 
avoid  tangling  their  snow-shoes,  when  they  came  to 
where  the  trail  stopped  short.  Beyond  a  certain  point, 
where  the  snow  was  all  beaten  down  and  bloody,  there 
were  no  farther  tracks.  The  young  lumbermen  stared 
at  the  trail,  then  into  each  other's  puzzled  faces. 


240  LYNX-HUNTING. 

"  Well,  that  boats  me ! "  Parlin  ejaculated.  "  Where'd 
he  goto?" 

Caswell  was  walking  round  to  the  other  side.  It  was 
plain  that  the  deer  had  struggled  violently  here ;  but 
where  or  how  it  had  gone  was  a  mystery. 

"  Should  'a'  thought  a  bear  or  a  bobcat  had  tackled 
it,  if  there  was  any  track  leading  off,"  Caswell  said, 
prodding  with  his  gun  into  the  light  snow. 

"  Can't  be  it's  got  under  the  snow,"  said  Parlin,  also 
walking  round,  and  prodding  the  drifts  as  he  did  so. 

They  were  both  at  their  wits'  end ;  but  just  then 
Caswell's  eye  caught  sight  of  a  peculiar  footmark  in  the 
stained  and  blood-soaked  snow.  Once  before  had  he 
seen  a  track  like  that. 

"  Look,  look ! "  he  exclaimed  in  a  terrified  voice. 
"  See  here  !  A  catamount's  foot ! " 

Instinctively  both  turned  their  eyes  toward  the  tree- 
tops.  Fifteen  or  twenty  feet  from  the  ground  an  ash 
had  broken  off,  and  fallen  over  at  right  angles  to  its 
stub.  There,  on  the  lofty  log,  at  the  angle  of  breakage, 
crouched  a  large,  gray-furred  beast,  with  the  deer  in  its 
mouth.  Its  eyes  flashed  green  fires.  Its  long  tail 
switched  to  and  fro  with  a  restless,  spiteful  motion ;  and 
its  broad-spread  claws  were  struck  into  the  bark,  and 
kept  clutching  with  a  sharp,  crackling  noise. 

They  afterwards  remembered  that  they  had  heard 
that  sound  on  first  coming  up,  but  had  thought  it  was 
caused  by  woodpeckers.  The  instant  they  looked  up, 
the  creature  screeched  frightfully,  with  the  fawn  still  in 
its  mouth,  —  screeched,  and  sprang  at  them  ere  they 
had  time  to  take  a  backward  step. 


LYNX-HUNTING.  241 

"  Never  shall  I  forget,"  said  Caswell  while  narrating 
the  adventure,  —  "  never  shall  I  forget  the  feeling  of 
fright  it  gave  me  to  see  the  fierce  brute  coming  down 
through  the  air,  with  his  claws  spread  out  to  seize  us, 
and  his  mouth  half  opened,  from  which  the  dead  fawn 
was  falling.  I  recollect  leaping  frenziedly  backwards 
on  my  rackets ;  and  the  next  instant  I  heard  Parlin  cry 
out,  and  saw  him  rolling  over  and  over  in  the  light 
snow,  with  the  catamount  grabbing  at  him,  —  grabbing, 
and  growling  short  and  savage. 

"  He  had  gone  right  over  backwards ;  and  the  way  he 
hollered  and  kicked  and  rolled  and  squirmed,  to  keep 
the  creature  from  throttling  him,  wasn't  slow.  The 
snow  was  just  like  feathers ;  and  he  went  down  into  it 
all  over.  Between  them,  they  made  it  fly  so  that  it  was 
hard  telling  which  was  which. 

"  Just  as  quick  as  I  had  regained  my  legs,  I  cocked  my 
gun,  and  aimed ;  but  it  was  two  or  three  seconds  before 
I  really  dared  to  fire,  they  were  so  mixed  up.  I  had  in 
the  gun  a  big  load  of  buckshot ;  and,  when  I  pulled  the 
trigger,  the  muzzle  wasn't  more'n  six  inches  from  the 
creature's  breast.  Well,  sir,  it  fairly  blowed  him  off  of 
Parlin.  Sent  him  all  in  a  heap  into  the  snow. 

"  Such  a  shrill  yelp  I  never  heard !  Then  he  rose 
right  up,  and  came  at  me.  I  struck  him  over  the  head 
with  the  barrel  of  my  gun  ;  that  knocked  him  partly 
over  again  :  and  I  just  kept  on  striking  him  as  hard  as  I 
could,  — more  than  a  hundred  blows.  It  seemed  as>  if  I 
must  hare  pounded  him  all  to  a  jelly.  But  he  would 
keep  rising  up  at  me,  his  eyes  shining,  and  his  teeth 
glistening.  The  barrel  of  the  gun  came  out  of  the 

16 


242  LYNX-HUNTING. 

stock :  then  I  pounded  him  with  tht  barrel  alone  till  I 
fairly  fractured  his  skull. 

"  Parlin  had  crawled  out  of  the  snow  a  little,  groan- 
ing and  taking  on.  He  was  covered  with  blood  ;  and 
his  clothes  were  stripped  and  slit  all  to  pieces  where  the 
creature  had  clawed  him.  One  of  his  arms  was 
scratched  to  the  bone  in  slits  clean  down  to  his  wrist, 
and  the  other  arm  was  bitten  in  one  place. 

"  He  had  one  bite  in  his  leg  too,  and  lighter  scratches 
all  over  his  body.  I  did  have  a  time  of  it  getting  him 
back  to  the  shanty !  He  was  sort  of  stunned  like,  and 
weak  as  a  rag  from  the  blood  he  had  lost. 

"  It  was  more  than  two  months  before  those  scratches 
and  bites  closed  up.  Somehow  the  flesh  wouldn't  heal, 
and  was  —  oh,  so  sore !  He  will  carry  those  scars  to  his 
dying  day." 

Whoever  undertook  to  write  the  early  history  of  the 
State  of  Maine,  his  account  would  be  incomplete  with- 
out liberal  mention  of  "  Old  Sabattus,"  whose  panther 
adventure  was  not  greatly  unlike  the  above.  All  over 
the  State,  one  keeps  coming  upon  a  "  Sabattus's  Hill," 
or  "Sabattus's  Eock,"  or  "Sabattus's  Point;'7  and 
there  is  a  town  called  "  Sabattusville."  These  are  all 
named  after  an  "  old  Indian  man "  who  used  to  hunt 
through  this  section,  and  lived  up  at  the  foot  of  the 
Richardson  Lake ;  had  a  wigwam  and  squaw  there.  He 
may  have  been  a  Passamaquoddy  Indian ;  though  some 
say  he  came  here  from  Canada.  The  writer's  grand- 
father remembers  him,  and  says,  — 

"  He  used  to  be  round  here  as  late  as  1820.  About 
the  first  I  remember  of  him  was  his  coming  to  our 


LYNX-HUNTING.  243 

camp  in  some  wild  lots  my  father  and  old  Mr.  Edwards 
were  clearing  up  together. 

"  We  were  working  at  some  distance  from  our  camp, 
and,  on  going  down  to  it  one  night,  spied  a  strange-look- 
ing object  boozing  over  our  fire.  On  first  coming  in 
sight,  we  had  taken  it  for  some  animal ;  but,  at  nearer 
view,  Edwards  pronounced  it  to  be  '  Old  Sabattus.' 

"  The  old  fellow  was  on  his  way  up  to  his  wigwam  on 
the  Richardson,  from  a  visit  to  the  settlements  to  dis- 
pose of  furs ;  and  was  about  as  drunk  as  he  could  well 
be,  and  go.  But  he  had  contrived  to  knock  over  a 
hedgehog,  which  he  had  brought  along  on  his  back  for 
several  miles.  And  such  a  plight  as  he  was  now  in !  — 
for  the  quills  had  gone  through  his  blanket,  and  fixed 
themselves  into  his  back  in  a  hundred  places.  Father 
and  Edwards  worked  over  him  all  that  evening,  with  an 
old  pair  of  pinchers,  and  pincers  made  of  split  sticks, 
trying  to  pull  them  out.  But  a  great  many  of  them 
had  already  gone  in  too  far  to  be  got  out ;  and  the  old 
chap  carried  them  off  with  him  the  next  morning. 

"Now,  as  a  hedgehog's  quill  will  keep  moving  and 
going  on  in  the  flesh  in  the  direction  it  has  entered, 
there  was  considerable  room  for  conjecture  as  to  how  the 
dozen  or  twenty  already  beneath  his  skin  would  turn 
with  him.  Father  was  of  the  opinion  that  they  would 
work  through  and  into  his  lungs  and  heart ;  but  Edwards 
didn't  believe  any  thing  could  kill  the  old  man.  Well, 
some  three  weeks  after,  who  should  we  see  coming  in 
one  night  but  Sabattus,  bringing  us  a  fine  quarter  of 
deer! 

"  The  quills  were  then  just  coming  out  on  his  breast 


244  LYNX-HUNTING. 

They  had  either  gone  clean  through  him,  or  else  round 
him,  under  the  skin.  He  declared,  however  (what  we 
could  easily  believe),  that  the  sensations  had  been  creep- 
ing and  horrible  to  the  last  degree. 

"  The  boys  were  always  coaxing  him  to  tell  his  adven- 
ture with  the  catamount,  in  the  recital  of  which  his 
peculiar  language  and  gestures  offered  a  great  fund  of 
merriment.  As  nearly  as  I  can  recall  it,  the  story  was 
this :  — 

"  Sabattus  with  his  dogs,  three  in  number,  had  been 
hunting  along  the  banks  of  the  Androscoggin ;  when  one 
day,  just  after  having  brought  down  a  moose,  and  while 
he  was  skinning  it,  with  his  dogs  looking  on,  a  cata- 
mount sprang  down  from  a  tree-top,  and,  seizing  one  of 
the  dogs,  leaped  back  with  it  into  the  tree. 

"  All  Indians,  as  is  well  known,  have  a  superstitious 
dread  of  the  cougar ;  and,  instead  of  shooting  at  the 
creature,  Sabattus  made  off  with  his  remaining  dogs, 
and  went  a  day's  walk  up  the  river  before  venturing  to 
stop  or  hunt  again.  But  the  panther  had  followed 
him ;  and  a  few  evenings  after,  as  he  was  sitting  by  his 
fire,  with  his  dogs  lying  by  his  side,  down  came  the 
fierce  beast,  and,  with  a  horrible  growl,  pounced  upon 
another  of  his  dogs. 

"  In  the  dim  light  of  the  darkening  forest,  the  trem- 
bling hunter  could  discern  its  glaring  eyes  flashing  from 
the  tree-top  as  it  tore  and  devoured  the  dog. 

"  Again  Sabattus  fled,  and  this  time  put  a  two-days' 
walk  behind  him.  But  he  had  scarcely  begun  cooking 
his  supper  on  the  evening  of  the  second  clay,  when,  for 
the  third  time,  the  catamount  camr  springing  down,  and 


LYNX-HUNTING.  245 

catching  up  poor  Grab,  his  last  dog,  ran  up  the  trunk 
of  a  large  rock-maple.  This  was  coming  pretty  close. 
There  were  no  more  dogs  to  stand  between  him  and  the 
monster. 

"<  Sabattus  no  run/  as  he  used  to  tell  it.  'Sabattus  no 
run  this  time.  No  good  run.  Sabattus's  turn  next.' 

et  He  must  either  kill  the  catamount,  or  the  catamount 
would  kill  him.  He  raised  his  gun  ;  but  for  a  long  time 
his  shaking  hands  refused  to  aim.  At  last,  resting  it 
across  the  root  of  a  fallen  tree,  he  got  it  a  little  steadier: 
still  muttering,  as  he  glanced  along  the  wavering  barrel, 
'  Sabattus's  turn  next ;  Sabattus's  turn  next ! ' 

"  But  the  old  chap's  hands  must  have  been  pretty  tol- 
erably steady,  after  all;  for  he  wounded  the  creature, 
fatally  too,  with  the  first  shot;  and,  after  watching  his 
dying  agonies  for  a  long  time,  a,t  length  had  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  him  stiff  in  death. 

"  It  was  rare  that  an  Indian  boasted  of  the  charms  of 
his  squaw.  Sabattus  was  a  little  given  to  that  weakness, 
however ;  and,  if  tradition  be  true,  old  Mollocket  was  de- 
serving of  his  pride.  To  have  rated  any  woman  more 
beautiful  than  Mollocket  would  have  been  to  give  mor- 
tal offence  to  Sabattus.  Whatever  her  charms  may  have 
been,  she  had  beauty's  love  for  ornament;  and,  during 
her  life,  had  collected  quite  a  quantity  of  jewelry,  all  of 
which  was  buried  with  her  at  the  foot  of  Richardson. 

"  The  spot  has  since  been  dug  over  for  rods  around  by 
the  woodsmen,  in  the  hopes  of  finding  it ;  but  nothing 
has  ever  been  discovered  save  a  few  steel  traps.  One 
little  shaggy,  red-haired  Scotchman,  after  digging  and 
nuzzling  about  there  for  several  days,  went  off  in  great 


246  LYNX-HUNTING. 

wrath,  exclaiming,  '  De'il  be  with  me  but  I  did  believe 
the  ould  jade  carried  it  through  with  her  ! 7 

"After  the  death  of  Mollocket,  Sabattus  abandoned  his 
wigwam  up  at  the  lake,  and  for  a  long  time  wandered 
about  homeless.  But,  as  years  crept  over  him,  the  infir- 
mities of  age,  and  memories  of  the  past,  took  him  back ; 
and  the  old  wigwam  was  rebuilt.  Here,  for  nine  years, 
he  lived  alone  with  Paugus,  his  dog ;  and,  during  the 
last  two  years,  he  is  said  to  have  been  wholly  blind. 
But,  ere  his  eyesight  had  entirely  failed,  he  had 
stretched  lines  of  bark  from  his  wigwam  to  the  spring, 
and  also  to  several  points  along  the  lake,  where  fish  could 
be  caught :  and  from  these  blind  fisheries,  and  occasional 
partridges  and  rabbits  run  down  and  brought  to  him  by 
Paugus,  he  still  continued  to  support  life ;  for,  during 
all  these  years,  the  faithful  dog  stood  by  him,  and 
watched  over  him  in  his  blindness.  And  now  comes  the 
most  remarkable  part. 

"  Sabattus  had  a  son  living  somewhere  in  Canada ; 
where,  he  didn't  even  know  himself.  But  this  son  had 
once  visited  him  at  the  lake,  and  Paugus  had  seen  him  ; 
and,  during  the  second  year  of  Sabattus's  blindness,  the 
dog,  seemingly  mindful  of  his  master's  infirmity,  left 
the  wigwam,  and,  traversing  a  wilderness  of  two  hun- 
dred miles  into  Canada,  went  about  from  town  to  town 
till  he  had  found  his  master's  son,  whom  he  sought  by 
every  means  in  his  power  to  induce  to  go  back  with  him. 
But  the  young  Indian  did  not  even  recognize  the  dog, 
and  repeatedly  beat  him  and  drove  him  away.  Paugus 
then  returned  to  his  master,  but  in  a  few  weeks  re- 
peated the  trip,  though  with  as  little  success  as  before, 


LYNX-HUNTING.  247 

The  careless  son  either  could  not  or  would  not  under- 
stand ;  and  the  noble  dog  again  went  back  to  his  mas- 
ter's wigwam.  But,  in  less  than  a  month  after,  he  had 
gone  to  Canada  for  the  third  time.  Struck  by  his 
strange  persistence,  young  Chook  now  bethought  himself 
of  his  father,  and,  accompanying  Paugus  through  the 
wilderness,  found  him  in  the  condition  referred  to 
above." 

This  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  remarkable  dog- 
stories  on  record. 

Sabattus  went  with  his  son  to  Canada,  where  he  died 
shortly  afterward. 


EIGHTEENTH   AND  LAST  DAY. 

The  Last  Pie.  —  We  break  up  Camp.  —  Mr.  Lurvy  and  his  Horse* 
Sled.  —  We  apply  for  the  "  Bounty  "  on  Our  Bears. —  A  "  Little 
Scene."  — Advice  to  Young  Sportsmen.  —  Amount  received  for 
our  Furs.  —  Camping  out  in  January. 

ASTIR  at  sunrise.  Ate  the  "last  pie"  for  break- 
fast ;  packed  up  our  remaining  traps  and 
"  kitchen  furniture,"  also  our  furs ;  then  got  out  oui 
moose-sled. 

Adieu  to  the  green  camp  on  the  bluff,  and  the  old 
pine-fire ! 

It  was  a  wild,  gusty  morning.  Snow-squalls  were 
skurrying  over.  We  crossed  the  lake,  and  made  a  "  bee- 
line  "  for  the  settlement,  leaving  winter  and  savagery 
to  reign  undisturbed  over  swamp  and  lake. 

Got  down  to  the  "  cleared  land  "  at  a  little  past  one 
o'clock,  P.M.,  and,  at  the  "  second  house,"  begged  and 
paid  for  a  dinner ;  also  struck  a  bargain  with  the  man, 
a  Mr.  Lurvy  (I  merely  guess  at  the  spelling),  to  take  us 
down  to  the  upper  stage  terminus  on  his  horse-sled. 

This  is  about  all  there  is  to  tell. 

One  incident  more. 

248 


LYNX- HUNTING.  249 

A  fe*v  miles  below  Mr.  Lurvy's,  we  passed  through 
a  village  of  six  houses,  one  of  which  was  a  "  store,"  and 
also  bore  the  signs  of  POST-OFFICE  and  TOWN-TREAS- 
URER. 

A  thought  struck  me.  Why  not  have  the  State 
"  bounties  "  on  our  bears  ? 

"  Agreed  !  "  exclaimed  Wash. 

"  Of  course  we  will !  "  cried  the  Doctor. 

The  sled  was  halted ;  and  we  all  five  went  in  to  inquire. 
The  place,  inside,  had  the  usual  "  counter,"  crates,  and 
molasses-hogshead,  as  also  the  standard  odor  of  "  West- 
India  goods"  and  codfish.  There  was  a  box-stove  in 
the  centre  of  the  room,  facing  the  door.  It  seemed 
a  good  deal  choked  for  breath,  and  as  a  consequence, 
perhaps,  had  turned  very  red  in  front.  It  had  lost  one 
leg,  and  had  that  deficiency  supplied  by  a  brick  stood  on 
end. 

Three  or  four  backwoodsmen  were  sitting  about  it; 
one  with  his  feet  on  the  form,  and  his  back  to  the  door. 
They  all  looked  round  as  we  entered,  save  the  latter : 
whence  I  guessed,  correctly,  that  he  must  be  the  store- 
keeper. So  we  went  round  him,  to  the  back  of  the 
stove,  to  get  to  face  him  ;  and  said  Wash,  — 

"  Are  you  the  town-treasurer,  sir  ?  " 

The  man  took  time  :  he  gave  us  an  indifferent  glance ; 
then  he  opened  the  stove-door,  and  looked  to  the  state  of 
the  fire.  At  length  he  said  he  supposed  he  was,  but  in  a 
tone  which  seemed  to  indicate  that  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  uncertainty  of  it ;  so  much  so,  that  Wash  was 
quite  disheartened  by  it,  and  looked  inquiringly  to  the 
rest  of  us.  Thereupon  I  said  that  we  had  killed  a 


250  LYNX-HUNTING. 

couple  of  bears  up  here  in  the  woods,  and  had  called 
to  get  the  State  bounty  on  these  animals. 

"  The  bounty  is  two  dollars  per  head,  is  it  not,  sir  ?  n 
Raed  asked. 

"  Tu  dollers  apiece  when  proved,"  said  the  treas- 
urer. "  You  must  fetch  on  the  hides." 

Wade  and  Wash  stepped  out  to  the  sled,  and,  bring- 
ing them  in,  threw  them  down  on  the  floor.  The  treas- 
urer, leaning  forward  from  his  chair,  smoothed  them  out, 
the  others  looking  on.  Then  they  winked  to  each 
other,  and  began  to  laugh. 

"Well,  what  is  it?"  I  said. 

The  men  took  their  pipes  out  as  if  it  were  really  a 
good  thing,  —  a  joke.  The  treasurer  straightened  back 
in  his  chair. 

"  Whar's  the  nose  and  ears  to  these  'ere  hides  ?  "  he 
demanded. 

"  The  nose  and  ears  ?  "  exclaimed  Wash. 

"  Sartin !  —  the  nose  and  ears." 

"  What's  that  to  do  with  it  ?  "  Kaed  asked. 

"  Consid'able,  I  should  think,"  replied  this  well- 
posted  officer.  "  We  pays  no  bounties  on  hides  as  don't 
have  the  nose  and  ears  on  'em.  Whar's  the  noses  and 
ears  ?  that's  what  I  ask  ye." 

I  explained  that  we  were  not  aware  of  the  provisions 
of  the  law  in  this  respect,  and  had  left  the  parts  speci- 
fied on  the  carcass. 

"  Humph  !  "  ejaculated  the  treasurer :  ."  now,  I  suppose 
you  haven't  presented  these  'ere  same  bar-skins  to  the 
treasurer  of  some  other  town,  have  ye,  an'  gut  yer  money 
on  'em,  an'  he's  cut  off  the  nose  an'  ears,  an'  destroyed 
'em,  as  he's  bound  by  law  to  do  ?  " 


LYNX-HUNTING.  251 

"  Certainly  we  have  not ! "  exclaimed  Baed. 

There  was  an  incredulous  snort ;  and  they  all  laughed 
again. 

"Conie  on!"  exclaimed  Wade  in  great  disgust.  "No 
use  fooling  with  them  !  " 

"  Not  a  bit  o'  use,  youngster ! "  the  treasurer  flung 
after  him.  "Next  time,  remember  yer  nose  and  ears! 
Oh,  ye  can't  gum  me  ! " 

"  Shut  up  your  foul  mouth ! "  shouted  the  Doctor, 
turning  in  the  doorway  in  a  passion.  "  Keep  your 
dirty  suspicions  to  yourself!  " 

Another  haiv-haw  arose  from  within  ;  and,  as  we  got 
on  the  sled,  I  saw,  through  the  dirty  glass-panes  of  the 
door,  the  face  of  the  treasurer  watching  us  off  with 
surly  contempt. 

Young  sportsman,  never  forget  the  ears  and  nose  of 
your  bounty-drawing  pelts. 

For  our  fur  we  received  in  Boston  five  dollars  for 
lynx;  eleven,  thirteen,  and  fifteen  for  otter;  four  for 
fisher;  three  and  a  half  for  beaver;  nine  for  bear. 
And  our  profits  may  be  briefly  summed :  — 

11  lynx $55.00 

3  otter 39.00 

1  fisher 4.00 

1  beaver 3.50 

2  bear .  18.00 

Total      ,        .  $119.50 


Not  a  great  haul ;  but  we  had  the  sport. 

We  have  found  January  a  more  agreeable  month  for 


252  LYNX-HUNTING, 

camping  out  than  July;  yes,  and  a  jaore  comfortable 
month  !  This  may  seem  a  paradox.  It  is  nevertheless 
true ;  in  Maine  at  least.  And  the  reasons  are  not  far  to 


1.  First  and  foremost,  there  are  no  mosquitoes  nor 
biting  flies  of  any  sort. 

2.  The    air  is  dryer  after  the  swamps,  streams,  and 
lakes  are  frozen,  and  snow  has  fallen.      There  is  less 
dampness  rising.     One  is  less  liable  to  take  cold  nights. 
By  taking  along  a  good  store  of  blankets,  coats,  and 
"  comforters,"  and  building  a  good  warm  camp,  there  is 
no  need  of  suffering  much,  if  any,  from  cold.     We  had 
only  three  "  severe  nights."     The  first  of  these  was  the 
manifest  result  of  our  own  imprudence.     The  two  last 
came  when   the  temperature  was  down  to  from  seven- 
teen to  twenty  degrees  below  zero  ;   and  had  we  taken 
along  a  sufficiency  of  blankets,  and  used  more  care  in 
constructing  our  camp,  we  should  not  have  been  serious- 
ly inconvenienced.     A  camp  should  always  be  located 
near  a  supply  of  old  dry  pine  or  spruce :  pine  is  best. 
This  can  be  easily  managed  almost  anywhere  throughout 
the  "  wild  lands  "  of  Maine. 

3.  The  forest  is  really  lighter,  pleasanter,  and  more 
airy,  after  the  leaves  have  fallen,  and  the  snow  has  come ; 
or,  at  least,  the  exhilarating  winter  air  makes  it  seem  so. 

4.  There's  better  hunting;    and  all  the  fur-bearing 
animals  are  then  in  condition. 

On  the  whole,  it  was  the  unanimous  opinion  of  our 
party  that  the  winter  trip  was  more  enjoyable  than  the 
summer  jaunt.  We  came  home  in  better  health. 


'••     ''f 


FIELD-NOTES. 


THE    LOUPCEBVIEK,  (LYNX  CANADENSIS). 


loupcervier  (lucivee),  or  Canada  lynx,  is  the 
_J_  largest  of  the  wild-cat  species  found  in  Northern 
New  England  and  the  Canadas.  The  name  "  loup- 
cervier "  is  that  given  the  animal  by  the  early  French 
settlers  of  Canada,  who  ascribed  to  it  the  practice  of 
dropping  from  the  branches  of  trees  upon  the  backs  of 
deer,  which  it  killed  by  tearing  open  their  throats,  and 
sucking  their  blood  :  hence  they  called  it  the  loup- 
cervier, or  stag-wolf.  From  them  our  people  got  it  as 
lucivee,  and  sometimes  lucifee. 

Another  common  designation  of  the  animal,  particu- 
lar^ in  rustic  neighborhoods,  is  the  "bobcat,"  manifest- 
ly from  its  short  tail  ;  but  this  latter  name  can  hardly 
be  regarded  as  discriminative,  since  it  is  applied  indiffer- 
ently both  to  the  loupcervier  and  the  Bay  lynx.  The 
same  objection  lies  in  the  generic  name,  lynx  :  so  that, 

253 


254  FIELD-NOTES. 

on  the  whole,  the  rather  grotesque  name  of  lucivee 
would  seem  the  most  definite,  as  well  as  the  most  ap- 
propriate. 

Naturalists  describe  at  least  seven  varieties  of  lynx. 
Of  these  our  lucivee  would  seem  to  most  nearly  resem- 
ble the  boreal  lynx  of  Northern  Europe  and  Siberia. 
Nor  (in  description)  would  it  appear  to  differ  greatly 
from  the  caracal  of  Asia  Minor  and  Northern  Africa. 

The  loupcervier  is  thirty-five  and  thirty-nine  inches 
in  length,  and  stands  twenty  and  twenty-three  inches  in 
height.  Larger  individuals  have  been  met  with.  These 
figures  give  the  running  average.  Its  head  is  shaped 
like  that  of  a  domestic  cat,  but  is  muah  larger.  Its 
ears  stand  erect,  and  are  tipped  each  with  a  peculiar  tuft 
of  black  hairs.  On  each  side  of  its  lower  jaw  is  a  bunch 
of  gray  fur  mixed  with  long  black  hair.  Add  to  this 
the  usual  "  smellers  "  of  the  felidce. 

Its  tail  is  four,  sometimes  five  inches  long,  tipped 
also  with  black,  and  having  something  of  the  tassel  form. 
Its  coat  of  fur  and  hair  is  soft  and  long,  changing  color 
twice  in  the  year.  During  the  summer,  the  animal  is 
of  a  dingy  gray  tending  to  a  reddish  hue  :  in  winter  — 
particularly  in  December  and  January  —  it  is  of  a 
lustrous  stone-gray  on  its  sides.  Along  its  back  are 
interspersed  long  hairs  tipped  with  black.  Underneath, 
its  body  is  white,  mottled  beautifully  with  black  spots. 

Its  eyes  are  very  large,  round,  and  sharp,  capable  of 
staring  unwinkingly  for  a  great  length  of  time :  hence 
the  adjective  lynx-eyed,  and  perhaps  the  ancient  fable 
that  the  lynx  could  see  through  stones  and  wooden  par- 
titions. The  natural  color  of  the  eyes  is  that  of  bright 


FIELD-NOTES.  255 

hammered  silver.  In  the  presence  of  a  foe,  or  its  prey, 
the  eye  seems  to  increase  in  size  as  the  creature  grows 
mad,  and  brighten  to  something  much  like  flame.  Its 
teeth  are  feline,  —  very  long,  and  extremely  sharp. 

The  loupcervier  has  long,  retractile  claws,  very  sharp, 
and  not  unlike  those  of  a  large  owl.  It  has  four  toes  on 
each  foot;  and  its  feet  are  hroad,  and  thickly  padded 
with  fur,  even  upon  the  bottoms.  Its  legs  are  thick,  and 
very  muscular.  Its  whole  aspect  bespeaks  fierceness 
and  an  active  habit. 

This  animal  breeds  once  in  a  year,  in  litters  of  two 
and  three  ordinarily,  four  unfrequently.  Like  most  car- 
nivorous beasts,  the  female  will  defend  her  young  with 
her  own  life. 

The  common  food  of  the  lynx  is  the  hare,  which  it 
slaughters  in  almost  incredible  numbers.  Like  other 
animals  of  the  cat  kind,  they  watch  for  their  prey,  and 
steal  upon  it  with  a  spring.  In  the  winter,  their  tracks 
may  frequently  be  seen  where  they  have  crept  up  slow, 
with  footprints  not  four  inches  apart.  In  running,  they 
leap  and  strike  all  their  feet  together,  going  from  six  to 
ten  feet  at  a  bound. 

Back  in  the  unincorporated  townships  and  in  the 
forests  of  Northern  Maine  and  Canada,  where  lynxes  are 
numerous,  they  often  go  in  droves  of  from  five  to  ten, 
and  are  then  more  bold  than  when  single.  Even  at  the 
present  day,  the  back  farmers  often  lose  sheep  and  lambs 
from  their  depredations. 

They  differ  from  the  domestic  cat  in  that  they  are 
good  swimmers,  and  often  resort  to  the  water  of  their 
own  accord ;  crossing  narrow  lakes  and  ponds  readily, 


256  FIELD-NOTES. 

paddling  noisily  along  about  as  fast  as  one  can  row  a 
boat.  The  State  of  New  Hampshire  pays  a  bounty  of 
one  dollar  on  their  heads :  the  State  of  Maine  pays  no 
bounty. 

They  enter  traps  pretty  readily  if  set  with  ordinary 
skill.  To  bait  a  trap  for  the  lucivee,  a  chunk  of  fresh 
meat  alone  is  necessary  :  if  scented  with  assafoetida  or 
beaver-castor,  so  much  the  better.  They  can  be  easily 
treed  with  hounds.  It  is  not  often  that  one  will  run 
over  a  couple  of  miles.  Generally,  they  flee  before  dogs ; 
though  a  common  hound  is  scarcely  a  match  for  one 
in  a  fight. 

The  loupcervier  seldom  attacks  a  man  unless  in 
defence  of  its  young,  or  when  cornered  up,  or  perhaps 
surprised  while  devouring  its  food.  Such  instances  of 
adventure  with  the  animal  as  have  fallen  within  the 
writer's  observation  or  knowledge  have  been  introduced 
in  the  body  of  this  work. 

Until  quite  recently,  the  Hudson-Bay  Company  have 
exported  from  six  to  ten  thousand  pelts  of  the  lynx 
annually ;  and  there  now  come  from  the  State  of  Maine 
probably  about  two  hundred  skins  yearly. 

There  is  yet  another  species  of  the  lynx  found  in  the 
open  and  settled  portions  of  this  State  (Maine),  in- 
differently known  as  the  wild-cat,  and  often  confounded 
with  the  loupcervier.  This  is  the  Bay  lynx  proper. 
It  is  rather  smaller  than  the  Canada  lynx  :  its  fur,  too, 
is  less  valuable,  and  far  less  handsome ;  the  black  tufts 
on  its  ears  less  marked,  and  sometimes  wholly  wanting ; 
and  the  bottoms  of  its  feet  bare.  This  latter  circum- 
stance, indeed,  constitutes  a  distinguishing  characteris- 


FIELD-NOTES.  257 

tic  The  true  lucivee  has  always  the  bottoms  of  its 
feet  well  padded  with  fur. 

I  cannot  better  conclude  this  notice  of  the  lynx  than 
by  appending  an  adventure  contributed  by  my  friend 
Mr.  G.  W.  Burleigh  of  Boston,  and  given  as  follows :  — 

t(  I  had  gone  up  to  M ,  in  Somerset  County,  Me., 

to  visit  the  Dexter  boys,  'Dave/  'Bud/  and  'Leve/ 
cousins  of  mine.  This  was  in  the  spring  of  1866.  I 
found  the  boys  in  the  maple-sirup  business. 

"Now,  making  maple-sugar  out  in  the  woods,  amid 
softly-dripping  sap-troughs,  &c.,  is,  as  everybody  knows, 
a  very  poetical  performance  to  hear  about,  and  see  on 
paper;  and,  being  at  that  time  without  any  actual 
experience,  I  believed  in  it  as  such,  and  at  once  closed 
with  their  invitation.  But  here  let  me  say,  that,  in 
my  humble  opinion,  those  who  wish  to  preserve  its 
poetic  phase  had  better  keep  out  of  its  practical  de- 
tails. Poetry  is  poetry ;  but  smoke-smarty  eyes  and  wet 
feet  are  not,  and  never  will  be,  in  my  judgment. 

"  Their  camp  was  situated  on  a  '  hard-growth J  ridge, 
a  mile  or  over  from  their  residence,  which  lay  on  the 
other  side  of  a  wide  wooded  valley.  They  had  two 
hundred  trees  tapped,  and  were  going  on  in  true  old 
New-England  style ;  i.e.,  boiling  in  brass  kettles  slung 
on  a  'lug-pole'  over  a  stone  arch,  and  all  under  the 
open  canopy  of  heaven.  They  had,  however,  a  sort  of 
shed  of  loose  boards,  with  a  quantity  of  hemlock  and  old 
coats  to  sleep  on :  for  there  had  been  an  excellent  run 
of  sap  during  the  entire  week;  and  they  kept  theii 
kettles  heaving  night  and  day,  only  going  over  home 
for  '  supplies/  I  went  over  in  the  afternoon,  and  had 
17 


258  FIELD-NOTES. 

not  got  the  romantic  all  rubbed  off  ere  night  caine  on. 
It  was  a  foggy,  early  April  evening,  and  grew  very  dark. 
How  bright  the  fires  looked,  while  all  about  us  seemed 
a  black  wall !  It  was  about  nine  o'clock,  I  think,  for  I 
had  just  finished  taking  a  very  long  lesson  in  '  sheep- 
skins '  from  an  old  pan  full  of  snow,  when  we  heard, 
seemingly  from  the  summit  of  the  ridge  above  us,  a  cry, 
—  a  peculiar,  quavering  screech. 

"  '  There  ! '  exclaimed  Leve  :   '  he's  coming  back ! ' 

"  <  What  was  that?  'said  I. 

"  '  An  old,  half-starved  lucivee,'  said  Dave. 

"  <  A  lucivee  ! ' 

" '  Yes,  lucivee,  or  bobcat :  some  call  'em  bobcats.' 

"  Just  then  we  heard  the  cry  again,  down  nearer  than 
before. 

"  l  Yes,  he's  coming  down  to  look  at  us  once  more,' 
said  Bud. 

" '  You've  heard  him  before,  then  ?  '  I  said. 

" '  Oh,  yes  !  He  was  screeching  round  here  all  last 
night.  Likes  the  smell  of  things,  I  expect.' 

"  I  had  heard,  some  time  or  other,  something  about 
bobcats,  but  had  supposed  they  were  rather  fierce  crea- 
tures. These  fellows,  however,  were  certainly  taking  a 
very  cool  view  of  the  subject,  —  cool  to  me,  at  least ;  for, 
saving  their  presence,  I  should  have  bolted  forthwith. 
Meanwhile  there  came  another  cry  not  more  than  twenty 
rods  off. 

"'Aren't  you  afraid  of  him? 'I  demanded,  getting 
a  little  nearer  the  kettles. 

" ( Well,  no ;  not  much,'  said  Dave.  '  I  shouldn't 
care  to  have  him  tackle  me,  or  spring  on  to  me.  But  he 


FIELD-NOTES.  259 

won't  do  that,  I  guess;  hasn't  yet,  at  any  rate;  and 
he's  been  hanging  round  us  here  for  as  much  as  a 
week.' 

"  <  What  sends  him  here?  > 

"'  Hungry,  half  starved.  Likes  the  looks  of  us. 
Wants  to  eat  us,  you  see,  but  don't  quite  dare  to  com- 
mence,' explained  Dave  with  great  sang-froid.  And  a 
few  minutes  after  we  heard  the  brush  snap  a  few  rods 
off  in  the  darkness.  I  began  to  feel  very  uncom- 
fortable. 

" '  He's  only  walking  round  the  camp/  said  Dave. 
t  It's  a  way  he's  got.  Look  sharp  off  there,  and  you'll 
see  his  eyes,  perhaps.  We  saw  'em  last  night.' 

"  I  needed  no  further  prompting  to  stare  like  an  owl. 

" '  There  ! '  whispered  Leve,  pointing  with  his  finger. 
<  Look  there  !  He's  eying  us  ! 7 

"  Yes,  I  plainly  discovered  two  pale  gleaming  spots, 
like  '  fox-fire/  flashing  in  the  blackness,  not  more  than 
fifty  yards  off. 

" '  Now  watch  ! '  said  Leve ;  and,  suddenly  snatching 
up  a  blazing  brand,  he  launched  it  toward  the  eyes. 
The  light  gleamed  out  among  the  trees ;  and  I  caught  a 
glimpse  of  a  large,  grayish  animal,  bounding  aside  with 
a  snarl. 

" '  D'ye  see  him  ?  '  cried  Leve. 

"I  undoubtedly  did.  About  the  size  of  a  large  dog,  I 
thought. 

"  Through  the  night,  the  boys  took  turns  watching 
the  kettles  and  tending  the  fire;  and  they  had  to 
frighten  off  the  ireature  several  times  before  morning. 

"  Perhaps  it  was  partly  due  to  the   novel  and  nob 


260  FIELD    ^OTES. 

very  downy  character  of  my  bed  of  boughs  in  the  old 
shed ;  but  I  did  not  sleep  very  well.  The  proximity  of 
such  a  beast  had  much  the  effect  of  green  tea  upon  me ; 
and  I  inly  resolved  to  leave  camp  before  another  night. 
But  the  boys  didn't  seem  to  mind  him  much.  They  had 
got  used  to  him,  I  suppose ;  though,  along  toward  morn- 
ing, I  overheard  a  bit  of  conversation  between  them. 

" '  Tell  you  what/  said  Leve :  '  I  think  the  old  chap's 
getting  a  little  too  familiar.  Comes  up  a  little  nearer 
every  night.  He'll  be  pouncing  on  to  some  of  us  yet,  I 
do  believe.' 

"  '  We'll  stop  his  calls/  said  Dave.  '  I'm  going  over 
home  some  time  to-day,  and  get  a  gun,  and  take  over  the 
dog.  We'll  have  some  fun  to-night.' 

"Our  nocturnal  visitor  disappeared  with  the  dawn; 
and  the  fearlessness  of  daylight  so  revived  my  courage, 
that  I  concluded  to  stay  and  see  the  result  of  the  next 
night. 

"'Have  you  ever  seen  him  in  the  day  time?' I  in 
quired  of  Leve  after  Dave  had  gone. 

"'No/  said  he.  'They  don't  come  out  till  dusk. 
Never  saw  one  while  the  sun  was  up.  They  keep  in  the 
swamps  and  in  thick  hemlock-clumps  by  day.  I  once 
stumbled  on  to  one  lying  under  a  lot  of  tall  brakes  down 
in  our  lower  pasture ;  but  he  ran  like  a  fox.  Generally, 
they're  shy.  But  this  one  seems  so  rabidly  hungry,  that 
I've  begun  to  get  a  little  skittish  of  him.  Being  in  the 
spring  so,  he  don't  get  much  to  eat,  I  suppose.' 

"  Toward  evening,  Dave  cume  back  with  the  gun 
(an  old  '  Queen's  arm ')  and  a  large  white  hound.  A 
queer  old  genius,  a  sort  of  hunter  or  trapper,  whom 


FIELD-NOTES.  261 

Dave  announced  as  'Old  Hughy  Watson/  came  over 
with  him. 

"  The  evening  was  clear  and  starlit.  We  shut  up  the 
hound  in  the  shed,  and  waited  for  the  lucivee. 

"  About  nine  o'clock,  his  dismal  cries  began  to  sound 
again ;  and  by  and  by  we  saw  him  coming  up  through 
the  opening  on  the  snow-crust,  which  kept  breaking 
under  him  at  almost  every  step.  We  had  the  old  gun 
loaded  with  buckshot,  and  ready  for  him :  but  either  the 
night  was  too  light  for  him,  or  some  suspicion  had 
crossed  his  mind  ;  for  at  a  distance  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
rods  he  stopped,  and,  sitting  down  like  a  cat,  watched 
for  a  long  time.  Possibly  he  smelled  the  hound.  We 
waited  for  him  to  come  nearer ;  till  at  last  Leve,  getting 
out  of  all  patience,  fired  off  the  gun  at  him.  Almost 
with  the  report  we  heard  a  sharp  growl,  and  saw  the 
beast  bounding  off  among  the  trees.  Dave  let  out  the 
hound  j  and  we  all  ran  after  him  with  the  gun  and  axe. 
At  the  place  where  the  creature  had  set  when  Leve 
fired  were  several  red  blotches  on  the  snow ;  and  we  saw 
now  and  then  a  drop  as  we  ran  on  after  the  hound, 
whose  deep  baying  rang  out  from  the  swamp  below. 

"  But  presently  the  barking  stopped;  and,  keeping  on, 
we  came  out  to  a  ledge,  or  cairn,  of  great  rocks,  which 
lay  piled  upon  each  other,  and  saw  by  the  dim  starlight 
the  white  form  of  the  hound  dodging  and  whining 
about  a  large,  dark  crevice  at  the  foot  of  it. 

"  '  Gone  into  that  ledge ! '  cried  Old  Hughy,  Banting 
up  after  us.  '  Down  under  them  rocks  '  (pant,  pant). 
1 1  know  the  place  we1! '  (pant,  pant).  '  Chased  a  bear 
in  there  once.  Devi(  )f  a  hole  under  there  ! ' 


262  FIELD-NOTES. 

"  Going  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  den,  we  could  plainlv 
hear  the  lucivee  growling  and  fretting.  The  buckshot 
and  the  chase  had  irritated  his  temper.  But  he  was 
very  deep  dowu  under  the  rocks. 

"  <  What's  to  be  done  ? '  said  Dave.  <  We  can't  get 
him,  can  we,  Hughy?' 

" { Not  unless  you've  got  pluck  enough  to  crawl  down 
in  there  and  shoot  him.  That's  the  way  I  got  the  bear 
we  chased  in  here.  By  crawling  down  some  ten  feet, 
you  can  see  round  into  the  den.' 

" '  Gracious !  you  wouldn't  catch  me  down  there ! '  I 
couldn't  help  exclaiming. 

" '  But  could  you  see  any  thing  after  you  got  in  ? ' 
asked  Dave. 

" '  See  his  eyes,'  said  Hughy,  coolly. 

" '  The  deuse  !  You  must  be  fools  to  go  in  there  ! '  I 
remonstrated.  '  He'd  scratch  your '  — 

" i  Going  to  do  it  ?  '  asked  Hughy,  without  paying 
much  attention  to  my  opinion. 

"  But  the  boys  held  back. 

"  '  I'd  go  if  it  was  in  the  daytime,'  said  Dave ;  '  but 
it's  so  confounded  dark  in  there,  that  I'll  be  hanged  if 
I  want  to  to-night.  They're  pretty  rough-handed  chaps 
when  cornered  up,  you  know.' 

" '  Well,'  said  Hughy,  '  if  you  won't,  I  s'pose  I  shall 
have  to.  Hand  me  that  gun  !  It's  well  loaded,  is  it  ? 
Now  stand  ready  with  that  axe,  and  the  rest  of  you  get 
cl'ibs.  Cut  them  some  clubs,  Dave.' 

"  We  did  as  he  directed ;  and  the  old  man,  getting 
down  on  his  hands  and  knees,  crept  into  the  aperture. 
But  it  was  not  without  a  shudder  that  I  saw  his  old 


FIELD-NOTES.  263 

boots  disappear  in  the  blackness,  and  listened  tc  the 
harsh  snarling  of  the  maddened  beast.  There  was  an 
exhibition  of  pluck,  certainly  !  We  waited  in  breath- 
less suspense.  Suddenly  the  scraping  of  the  old  fellow's 
knees  and  toes  ceased.  There  was  a  click  and  a  tre- 
mendous explosion,  followed  by  growls  ;  and  a  volume  of 
powder-smoke  gushed  forth  from  the  mouth  of  the  den. 

"But,  instead  of  Hugh y,  there  sprang  out  the  lucivee, 
fairly  cutting  a  summersault  in  its  headlong  haste. 
The  hound  sprang  upon  him :  he  would  have  escaped 
us  but  for  him.  A  great  scrimmage  ensued  there  in  the 
dark.  The  boys  payed  on  with  the  axe  and  their  clubs ; 
and,  amid  a  terrible  uproar  of  barks  and  snarls  and 
shouts,  the  lucivee  was  brought  to  the  ground,  and  des- 
patched, but  not  before  he  had  laid  open  several  long, 
ugly-looking  scratches  and  slits  in  '  Spot's J  white  hide. 

"  But  what  end  had  Hughy  made  ?  We  turned.  The 
old  fellow  was  now  just  wiggling  out,  —  a  little  sheepish- 
ly, I  fancied. 

"At  sight  of  him,  first  Dave,  then  all  of  us,  began  to 
laugh. 

"  '  Humph  ! '  exclaimed  the  old  man,  giving  the  car- 
cass a  kick.  '  Didn't  give  me  time  to  take  aim ! ? 

"  But  beyond  some  long  rents  in  his  old  coat,  received 
(he  explained  to  us)  when  the  creature  scrambled  over 
him,  he  had  sustained  no  personal  damage;  which  I 
couldn't  help  thinking  was  getting  out  of  it  better  than 
he  deserved." 


THE    FISHER  (MUSTELA  CANADENSIS). 

IT  is  not  often  that  a  fisher  is  now  captured  in  the 
southern  and  settled  portions  of  Maine ;  and,  so  far 
as  the  writer  has  been  able  to  learn,  the  same  holds  good 
of  the  States  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  and  in 
Northern  New  York.  Fifty  years  ago,  however,  they 
were  not  unfrequently  trapped  along  our  pond-shores ; 
and  hunters  often  shot  them  in  swamps  and  on  the 
banks  of  forest-brooks.  The  only  place  within  the 
writer's  knowledge  where  the  fisher  may  now  be 
trapped  with  any  degree  of  certainty  is  on  the  head 
waters  of  the  Androscoggin,  about  the  Umbagog  lakes. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  a  fact  worth  stating,  that  these  lakes 
now  offer  the  best  hunting-ground  in  New  England  for 
nearly  all  our  Northern  animals.  A  naturalist  might 
count  with  tolerable  certainty  on  securing  a  specimen 
here,  not  only  of  the  fisher,  but  also  of  the  loupcer- 
vier,  the  pine-marten,  and  the  ermine.  The  fisher  is 
also  not  uncommonly  reported  about  Moosehead  Lake, 
and  along  the  west  branch  of  the  Penobscot.  I  hear 
of  them,  too,  in  Aroostook  County.  It  would  seem  that 
they  exist  in  considerable  numbers  throughout  the 

264 


FIELD-NOTES.  265 

"  wild  lands "  belonging  to  the  State ;  though  never 
found  plenty,  like  the  loupcervier,  in  any  locality. 
They  are  shy,  noiseless  creatures,  going  silently  about, 
and  not  a  little  given  to  skulking ;  but,  when  brought  to 
bay,  are  most  indomitable  fighters,  and  remarkably 
tenacious  of  life.  In  hunters'  phrase,  "Dogs  have  no 
business  with  them ; "  and  I  have  been  told  of  a 
matched  fight  gotten  up  by  some  loggers  between  a 
fisher  and  the  loupcervier,  from  which  the  fisher  came 
off  the  victor. 

The  fisher  is  essentially  a  Northern  animal.  The 
northern  sections  of  the  United  States  constitute  the 
southern  limits  of  its  range,  which  extends  northward 
to  the  Frozen  Ocean.  Like  the  loupcervier,  it  preys 
mainly  on  the  hare ;  though  some  hunters  hold  that  it 
catches  trout  from  the  brooks.  In  backwoods  neighbor- 
hoods it  is  commonly  called  the  "fish-cat,"  —  from  this 
circumstance,  perhaps  :  indeed,  many  writers  term  it  the 
"fisher-cat."  But  it  is  not  properly  a  cat.  Old  writers 
called  it  the  "pekan,"  from  the  French;  and  some  have 
confounded  it  with  the  carcajou  and  the  wolverine. 
But  the  fisher  is  unmistakably  of  the  genus  Mustela 
(the  weasel),  being  the  largest  of  that  family  of  animals 
found  in  North  America.  The  description  of  this 
animal  given  by  Audubon  and  Bachrnan,  however,  is 
quite  inapplicable  to  the  fisher  of  Maine.  These  writers 
give  the  weight  of  a  full-size  specimen  as  eight  pounds 
and  a  half;  whereas  the  one  we  caught  would  not 
have  fallen  an  ounce  under  forty  pounds.  This  one  was 
a  very  muscular,  though  rather  slim  creature,  with  short, 
stout  legs,  low,  broad  ears,  and  rather  large  eyes.  Its 


266  FIELD-NOTES. 

body  was  forty-one  inches  in  length;  its  tail  twenty-five 
inches,  and  very  bushy  and  broad  at  the  base.  It  emitted 
the  peculiar  musky  odor  of  the  weasel  family ;  and  its 
muzzle  resembled  that  of  the  marten.  It  had  five  claws 
to  the  foot,  very  long  and  sharp. 

The  fisher  of  Maine  breeds  once  a  year,  in  litters  of 
two,  three,  and  sometimes  four,  about  the  first  of  May. 
Its  lair  is  sometimes  under  ricks  of  old  logs,  not  un- 
frequently  in  fallen  trunks,  and  often  in  hollow  trees. 
One  of  the  writer's  earliest  recollections  of  the  fisher  is 
connected  with  a  certain  "  log-trap,"  upon  which  he,  in 
company  with  another  youngster,  once  labored  for  up- 
wards of  a  week  at  sly  jobs.  It  was  intended  for  a 
bear  or  a  lynx,  —  any  thing  that  might  choose  to  walk 
in  and  pull  the  spindle.  It  was  built  of  rough  spruce- 
logs  ;  was  about  ten  feet  square  by  six  in  height.  The 
logs  were  locked  together  at  the  corners  by  means  of 
scarfs  and  notches ;  and  the  roof  was  of  stout  poles, 
loaded  with  large  stones  to  hold  them  down.  In  the 
front-side  we  left  a  doorway,  some  three  feet  and  a  half 
in  width ;  and  into  this,  by  means  of  stakes  and  withs, 
we  fitted  a  slide-door  of  split  and  hewn  spruce-planks, 
made  to  play  up  and  down  between  the  stakes. 

When  set,  the  door  was  raised  and  held  in  its  place 
by  a  pole  on  the  inside,  which  ran  back  to  the  "  figure 
four "  arid  spindle.  The  spindle  was  baited  with  a 
hare,  and  bits  of  hare-meat  were  scattered  about  the 
entrance. 

In  addition  to  this,  we  would  drag  a  freshly-killed  hare 
or  partridge  in  toward  the  trap,  from  various  points  off 
hi  the  woods,  to  make  a  scented  trail. 


FIELD-NOTES.  267 

The  reader  can  imagine  what  a  job  this  must  have 
been  for  boys  of  thirteen  and  fourteen,  and  how  much 
we  doted  on  it. 

I  remember  that  we  used  to  get  up  as  soon  as  :t  was 
light  to  get  our  day's  stint  of  "  husking  "  —  it  was  in 
October  —  done  by  noon,  in  order  to  have  the  afternoon 
to  work  on  our  trap.  Then  how  eagerly  we  used  to  take 
our  axes,  steal  off  into  the  woods,  and  follow  far  up  to 
the  little  knoll  among  the  spruces,  to  resume  our 
labors ! 

And  when  at  last  it  was  done,  and  set,  with  what 
anticipation  we  waited  over  night,  and  visited  it  in  the 
morning !  But  there  gaped  the  door.  Nothing  had 
been  near  it. 

We  would  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  disappointed, 
however. 

Over  a  week  passed ;  but  the  trap  remained  empty. 
Despite  our  sanguine  faith  in  it,  we  began  to  grow  less 
expectant  as  we  crept  through  the  low  hemlocks  at  the 
foot  of  the  knoll,  only  to  see  the  great  black  hole  under 
the  raised  door  staring  at  us  in  the  midst  of  an  utter 
stillness,  while  the  great  shaggy  spruces  seemed  to  hang 
over  it  in  gloom  and  hopelessness. 

"  Tell  you  what,"  said  Tommy,  as  for  the  fifth  time 
we  stood  eying  our  luckless  trap,  "it's  too  big  and 
glaring-like.  Tells  its  own  story,  —  scares  'em.  They 
mistrust  it.  Can't  wre  do  something  ?  " 

"Might  put  a  lot  of  boughs  and  brush  over  it,"  I 
suggested  doubtfully. 

"Yes,  and  pick  up  all  those  fresh  chips  lying  about, 
and  scatter  dead  leaves  over  the  hewings  and  the  places 
where  we've  torn  up  the  earth.  Let's  do  it." 


268  FIELD-.NOTES. 

We  fell  to  work  again,  and  disguised  the  structure  so 
effectually,  that,  at  a  little  distance,  it  would  have  "been 
easily  mistaken  for  a  thicket  of  small  spruces,  and,  let- 
ting the  boughs  droop  over  the  entrance,  made  it  re- 
semble a  mere  gap  between  two  scrubby  shrubs. 

Perhaps  it  was  this,  perhaps  from  mere  luck ;  but  the 
next  afternoon,  when  we  came  up,  it  was  sprung. 

We  could  scarcely  believe  our  eyes,  we  had  been  dis- 
appointed so  long. 

"  Sprung,  sure ! "  said  Tommy  as  we  came  out  in 
sight. 

The  door  was  down  hard  and  fast.  We  edged  up. 
All  was  quiet. 

"Don't  believe  there's  any  thing  inside,"  muttered 
Tommy. 

There  were  crevices  between  the  rough  planks  of  the 
door :  we  peeped  through.  At  first,  all  seemed  dark ; 
then  we  caught  the  glow  of  two  fiery  eyes,  and  gradu- 
ally made  out  a  dusk  figure  crouching  in  the  corner. 

"  A  bear,"  I  thought. 

"  Too  small  for  a  bear,"  Tommy  said. 

It  was  much  too  small. 

On  looking  longer,  we  could  see  its  shape. 

"  Just  about  as  large  as  Ponto  "  (a  neighbor's  dog), 
said  Tommy.  "  Guess  it's  a  fish-cat "  (that  was  our 
name  for  the  fisher). 

Going  round  to  the  corner  in  which  the  creature 
crouched,  we  could  see  its  long  black  hair  through  a 
chink. 

"  That's  a  fish-cat  fast  enough  "  said  Tommy.  "  Look 
at  that  wiry  hair ! " 


FIELD-NOTES.  269 

We  got  a  pole,  and  gave  him  a  poke  through  the 
chink.  With  a  snarl,  the  heast  jumped  away  to  the 
other  side ;  and,  on  thrusting  in  the  pole,  it  was  grabbed, 
and  nearly  wrested  out  of  Tommy's  hand. 

"  What  shall  we  do  with  him  ?  "  I  asked,  after  we 
had  poked  him  about  the  trap  a  while. 

"  Do  with  him  ?  Why,  kill  him  and  skin  him,  of 
course,  same  as  all  hunters  do,"  replied  Tommy. 

"  Yes,  I  know.     But  how  shall  we  kill  him  ?  " 

That  was  not  so  easily  planned  at  first ;  for  we  had 
no  gun  with  us,  —  nothing  but  an  axe. 

"  I  don't  see  but  one  way  to  do  it,"  said  Tommy. 
"One  of  us  must  get  up  on  top,  and  hoist  the  door 
slowly,  —  a  leetle  ;  and  the  other  must  stand  ready  to 
knock  him  with  the  axe  when  he  sticks  his  head  out." 

"  All  right,"  said  I,  climbing  on  to  the  trap.  "  You 
knock  him.  I'll  lift  up  the  door." 

Tommy  took  the  axe,  and  stood  ready  to  strike.  I 
began  to  wiggle  the  door. 

"  Now  slow,"  cautioned  Tommy.  "  Leetle  at  a  time. 
Not  too  much." 

I  raised  it  a  few  inches. 

"  Leetle  more,"  said  Tommy. 

I  lifted  it  another  inch  or  two.  No  movement  on  the 
part  of  the  fish-cat. 

"  Leetle  higher." 

I  tugged  it  up  several  inches  more. 

rt  Strange  he  don't  rush,"  muttered  Tommy.  "  Stamp 
on  the  poles." 

I  stamped,  still  holding  up  the  door;  when,  quick  as 
wink,  out  leaped  the  fisher.  Tommy  struck  j  and  the 


270  FIELD-NOTES. 

next  thing  I  saw  .was  both  of  them  rolling  over  on  the 
ground,  and  then  the  black  creature  making  off  into 
the  woods  with  long  leaps. 

"  Hurt,  Tommy  ?  Did  he  scratch  ye  ?  "  exclaimed  I, 
jumping  down. 

"  No ;  I  guess  not  much,"  said  Tommy,  picking  him- 
self up  out  of  the  dry  leaves.  "  Got  his  claws  into  my 
jacket  a  little." 

There  were  two  or  three  long  rents  in  it. 

"Didn't  bite  ye?" 

"  No ;  but  I  smelt  his  breath :  stunk  awfully,  I  tell 
ye!" 

We  re-baited  the  trap,  and  went  home  wiser,  if  not 
richer  in  fur. 


THE    OTTER   (LUTKA  CANADENSIS). 

TT)  EAUTIFUL  sleek  fellows !  Every  pond,  lake,  and 
I  )  stream  of  the  State  was  formerly  the  scene  of 
their  aquatic  sports.  Nor  have  they  retired  before  the 
settler  completely,  like  the  beaver.  The  capture  of  an 
otter  is  no  unusual  occurrence  along  streams  well 
studded  with  mills.  Sometimes  one  is  turned  out  from 
under  the  very  board-piles  of  a  saw-mill.  Along  the 
outlet  of  a  small  pond  in  the  southern  part  of  Oxford 
County  (a  stream  well  stocked  with  fish),  the  writer  has 
known  of  at  least  five  being  taken  within  the  last  two 
years.  At  several  localities  in  the  State,  otter-trapping 
is  made  a  business  of  still,  with  fair  returns,  by  a  few 
old  "  professionals."  Each  has  his  "  line  of  traps  "  set 
along  a  chain  of  ponds.  These  are  visited  once  a  fort- 
night by  some  j  once  a  month  only  by  others.  They 
are  set  under  water,  at  the  foot  of  the  "slides,"  on  a 
"  bed  "  of  stones  and  turf,  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
otter  is  held  beneath  the  surface,  and  drowned,  where  it 
lies  on  the  bottom.  The  carcass  may  remain  here  three 
weeks  without  injury  to  the  fur.  A  brother-trapper 
passing  is  not  expected  to  meddle  with  an  otter,  even  if 
seen  struggling  in  the  trap ;  whereas,  in  case  of  a  mink, 

271 


272  FIELD-NOTES. 

the  "  laws  of  the  -trap  "  require  him  to  kill  it,  and  hang 
up  the  carcass  to  a  neighboring  hough,  then  reset  the 
trap.  Generally,  however,  the  old  fellows  are  very  de- 
cently distrustful  of  each  other.  To  rob  a  trap  is  an 
offence  of  the  "  high  sass  "  order,  and  never  overlooked 
nor  forgiven.  "  Old  Sabattus  "  (Indian),  who  used  to 
hunt  and  trap  throughout  the  south-west  portions  of  the 
State,  is  believed  to  have  killed  a  man  whom  he  caught 
robbing  his  otter-traps.  The  old  heathen's  truly  laconic 
account  of  the  matter  was,  "  Him  rob  my  trap.  Me 
see  him.  Me  follow  him.  Pretty  soon  he  go  sleep. 
He  never  wake  up." 

Like  the  beaver,  the  otter  is  very  awkward  on  land, 
and  correspondingly  expert  in  water.  It  dives  appar- 
ently without  effort,  and  swims  with  astonishing  swift- 
ness. It  will  remain  under  water  from  one  to  three, 
minutes ;  and,  after  diving,  may  sometimes  be  seen 
crouching  quietly  on  some  sunken  log  or  rock. 

While  our  party  were  up  in  the  "  wild  lands,"  we  had 
the  good  fortune  to  trap  three  otters  at  their  winter 
burrow ;  some  account  of  which  is  hereafter  inserted. 
From  one  of  these  were  taken  the  following  measure- 
ments :  Length,  exclusive  of  tail,  thirty-nine  inches ; 
length  of  tail,  twenty-six  inches ;  weight,  (guessed  to  be) 
rising  thirty  pounds.  The  head  was  very  broad  and 
blunt ;  and  the  muzzle  so  large,  that,  at  first  sight  of  it 
down  in  the  burrow,  we  took  it  for  a  bear's.  The  tail 
was  long,  large,  round  on  top,  and  flat  beneath.  The 
legs  were  shortish,  and  the  feet  webbed. 

The  otter  always  lives  in  connection  with  the  water 
Its   food  is  fish   principally.      Its  young  are   brought 


FIELD-NOTES.  273 

forth  (in  Maine)  about  the  first  of  April,  in  litters  of 
two,  sometimes  three.  Our  common  hounds,  and  the 
average  of  dogs,  are  hardly  a  match  for  the  otter  when 
at  bay.  As  illustrating  this,  the  writer  recollects  an 
incident  of  old  school-days,  which  left  at  the  time  a  very 
vivid  impression.  The  schoolhouse  was  situated  but  a 
few  rods  from  a  large  brook,  which  flowed  into  a  pond 
not  far  below.  It  was  the  usual,  unpretending  "  temple 
of  science  "  one  generally  sees  out  in  the  country,  or 
rather  did  see  ten  years  ago ;  since  which  time  there 
has  been  marked  improvement  in  educational  architect- 
ure. The  sills  rested  flatly  on  the  bosom  of  mother- 
earth  ;  but  on  one  side  we  had  dug  a  hole  under  the 
sill,  just  large  enough  to  admit  a  nine-year-old.  This 
hole  was  used  in  playing  "  bear,"  with  that  remorseless 
disrespect  for  jacket  and  pants  common  to  all  such 
urchins.  On  the  morning  in  question,  "  bear  "  had  been 
chosen,  and  had  just  wriggled  into  his  den ;  when,  lo ! 
he  uttered  a  sudden  yelp,  and  came  out,  contrary  to  all 
rules  and  established  precedent,  crying  out,  "Suthin* 
under  there  !  A  great,  big  "  — 

Then  there  was  juvenile  to-do.  A  flock  of  crows 
besieging  a  raccoon  could  hardly  have  made  a  greater 
uproar.  At  first,  we  supposed  it  to  be  a  veritable  bear ; 
but  at  length  the  older  boys  —  after  some  cautious  peeps 
under  the  sill  —  pronounced  it  an  otter.  Otters  were 
not  unfrequently  captured  along  the  brook. 

Just  then  the  "  mistress  "  came,  and,  entering  the 
house  from  the  other  side,  rang  her  little  bell.  The 
summons  was  not  to  be  disregarded ;  yet  we  were  far  too 
excited  to  go  quietly  to  our  seats.  We  all  ran  to  her 

18 


274  FIELD-IS  OTES. 

open-moutlied :  "  0  Miss !  There's  an  otter  under 

the  schoolhouse !  A  great,  big  thing!  Big  as  the 
stove !  Bigger^  the  stove !  And,  oh,  we  can  hear 
him  growl !  And  he  like  to  ate  up  Billy  Murch  !  Oh, 
he'll  eat  us  all  up  !  " 

Now,  Miss was  a  city  girl,  who  practically  knew 

no  difference  betwixt  an  otter  and  a  catamount.  She  did 
the  correct  thing :  she  just  clapped  one  little  hand  to 
her  side,  and  fainted. 

Fresh  dismay  among  the  juveniles,  boo-hooing  from 
all  the  "  abecedarians ; "  till  at  last  one  practical  little 
girl  let  a  dipper  of  water  fly  plump  in  the  mistress's 
very  white  face.  That  set  her  a-gasping,  and  revived 
her,  but  demoralized  her  collar  utterly, — a  fact  every 
urchin  of  us  observed  with  considerable  awe.  She  sat 
up,  dripping,  with  a  faint  little  "  Ah  !  where  is  it  ?" 

We  at  once  gave  the  subject  mouth  again  :  whereupon 

Miss clutched  down  her  fairy-ribboned  hat,  shied 

fearfully  out  at  the  door,  and  ran,  followed  by  all  the 
little  girls,  to  a  great  flat  rock  on  the  other  side  of  the 
road.  There  they  made  a  stand,  and  stood  huddled 
together,  the  mistress  in  the  centre  of  the  group.  I 
remember  just  how  we  little  chaps  stared  at  this,  to 
us,  unwarranted  piece  of  timidity:  we  couldn't  under- 
stand it. 

But  we  ran  off,  and  gave  an  alarm ;  and  soon  half  a 
dozen  youngsters  of  the  neighborhood  came  running 
with  dogs.  First  they  sent  under  a  large  black-and- 
white  dog  called  "  Spot/'  a  well-known  canine  character 
thereabouts.  Spot  dived  in  with  a  bark.  Then  came 
such  an  outcry  as  made  our  eyes  stick  out.  How  thej- 


FIELD-NOTES.  275 

bumped  up  against  the  floor  of  the  schoolroom  !  Such 
yelps  and  yells  and  worryings !  ?Twas  terribly  exciting 

for  us.  Poor  little  Miss took  flight  from  the  great 

rock,  with  all  the  girls,  for  the  nearest  house.  Then 
out  came  Spot  with  a  rush,  a  yelp,  and  chatter  of  teeth 
at  his  tail. 

A  hound  was  next  sent  under,  and  after  him  a  large 
brindled  dog,  with  even  less  success.  The  same  dog 
could  not  be  got  under  twice. 

Finally  a  board  in  the  schoolroom  floor  was  taken  up, 
and  the  animal  shot  from  above. 

But  I  recollect,  that,  during  the  remaining  days  of  that 
term,  the  mistress  would  never  enter  the  schoolhouse, 
nor  yet  approach  very  near,  till  some  of  us  boys  had 
looked  under  the  sill,  and  reported. 


THE  BEAVER  IN  MAINE  (CASTOR  CANADENSIS). 

THAT  Leaver  were  once  abundant  in  this  State 
is  shown  by  the  remains  of  dams  and  huts  along 
nearly  every  stream  and  brook  of  any  considerable  size. 
One  can  scarcely  cross  a  meadow,  or  follow  up  a  valley, 
particularly  in  the  middle  and  northern  portions  of  the 
State,  without  coming  upon  some  of  these  old  signs. 
Indeed,  many  small  meadows  seem  to  have  had  their 
origin  in  a  beaver-dam  at  their  foot ;  and  here  and  there 
small  ponds  may  be  found  pent  up  by  the  same  agency, 
and  not  yet  filled  with  alluvial  matter.  One  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  these  latter  is  on  Salmon  Brook,  a 
tributary  of  the  Aroostook  River,  locally  known  as 
"Salmon-Brook  Lake;"  a  very  considerable  sheet  of 
water,  where,  not  more  than  four  years  since,  a  colony 
of  beaver  were  still  living.  The  last  "family"  were 
caught  by  a  hunter  named  Sutor,  living  at  Presque  Isle. 
There  are  now,  or  at  least  were  less  than  a  year  ago,  beaver 
living  on  Beaver  Brook,  another  affluent  of  the  Aroos- 
took, about  eight  miles  to  the  westward.  Possibly  the 
lumbering  operations  conducted  there  during  the  present 
winter  (1873)  may  have  disturbed  them.  On  many  of 
the  streams  in  the  upper  portion  of  Oxford  County, 

276 


FIELD-NOTES.  277 

there  are  still  many  small  families  of  beaver :  .u  the 
Diamond,  the  Cupsuptic,  and  the  Beamus  stream,  there 
are  said  to  be  a  few  remaining.  Along  the  head  waters 
of  the  St.  John's,  the  Allaquash,  and  also  the  Penobscot, 
beaver  are  frequently  reported  by  the  lumbermen.  But 
they  now  choose  small  streams  back  in  the  deepest  re- 
cesses of  the  wilderness  for  their  huts  and  dams.  They 
have  been  too  often  disturbed  to  build  on  the  large 
rivers,  as  formerly;  and,  indeed,  are  fast  dying  out  in 
this  State,  as  in  other  localities.  Our  naturalists  deem 
the  beaver  the  last  species  of  a  genus  of  animals  that 
have  lived  on  the  earth  since  a  very  remote  epoch,  —  the 
genus  Castor.  The  beaver  (as  a  species)  is  perhaps  the 
oldest  of  mammals  ;  and  it  differs  from  all  other  animals 
in  several  particulars.  Between  the  hind-legs  is  a  pair 
of  glandular  sacs  (having  no  connection  with  the  gen- 
erative organs).  These  sacs  contain  an  odorous  sub- 
stance, which  is  the  castor  of  commerce  (castoreum). 
Hunters  call  it  "  barkstone."  It  is  used  in  medicine,  I 
believe ;  and  is  quite  valuable,  each  sac  being  worth  a 
dollar  or  over. 

The  beaver  is  essentially  amphibious.  Its  body,  from 
the  end  of  the  nose  to  the  roots  of  the  tail,  is  from 
thirty-three  to  thirty-six  inches.  The  tail  is  about  a 
foot  long,  an  inch  thick,  and  from  five  to  seven  inches  in 
width :  it  is  really  a  paddle  both  in  shape  and  use. 

Of  teeth  it  has  two  incisors  to  each  jaw,  and  eight 
molars.  The  incisors  are  the  wood-choppers  :  they  are 
from  two  to  three  inches  long,  arching,  and  protrude 
outward. 

The  feet  have  five  toes :  the  forward  toes  are  short 


278  FIELD-NOTES. 

and  close,  the  hinder  ones  long  and  palmated.  The 
second  toe  of  the  hind-foot  is  armed  with  double  nails. 
They  make  a  very  singular  and  unequal  gait  while  walk- 
ing on  land,  owing  to  the  unwieldy  form  of  their 
bodies,  which  slope  down  from  behind  the  centre  toward 
their  feet.  Their  hind-feet  also  stand  out  awkwardly, 
which  is  of  advantage  to  their  progress  in  water. 

The  body  of  the  beaver  is  covered  with  two  kinds  of 
hair :  the  inner  coat  thick,  short,  and  silky,  of  a  cream 
brown ;  the  outer  coat  of  coarser  hair  two  inches  long, 
and  glossy  black. 

In  weight,  the  beaver  ranges  from  thirty  to  sixty 
pounds.  The  flesh  is,  in  taste,  a  singular  compound  of 
venison  and  fish.  That  of  the  forward  parts  of  the 
creature  tastes  like  lamb  (rather  oily)  ;  that  of  the 
hinder  parts  and  tail  like  trout  somewhat.  This  is  evi- 
dently from  the  fact  that  the  animal  nearly  always  lies 
with  its  hinder  parts  in  the  water.  Indeed,  the  tail  is 
covered  with  scales,  and  looks  like  a  fish.  The  Indians 
were  said  to  use  the  oil  of  the  tail  for  many  diseases ; 
and,  when  dressed  and  cooked,  they  esteemed  a  beaver's 
tail  the  greatest  delicacy  that  could  be  set  before 
them. 

The  beaver  does  not  attain  its  full  growth  till  three 
years  old,  and  is  thought  to  live  to  the  age  of  twelve  or. 
fifteen  years.  It  breeds  once  a  year  (March)  ;  and  goes 
with  young  four  months,  bringing  forth  from  two  to  six 
per  birth. 

The  beaver  lives  mainly  on  vegetable  food  j  though 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  it  not  unfrequently  catches 
a  fish.  Ir  winter  it  subsists  on  the  bark  of  green  wood, 


FIELD-NOTES.  279 

stored  up  late  in  tne  fall  along  the  bottom  of  their 
ponds.  Trappers  used  to  hold  that  this  wood  was  sunk 
in  some  mysterious  way;  hut  the  process  manifestly 
consists  in  weighting  it  with  stones  and  mud. 

On  meadow-lands,  where  the  current  is  light,  their 
dams  are  simply  of  mud  and  water-grass  ;  but,  on  rapid 
streams,  sticks  and  drift-wood  are  used.  When  the 
current  is  strong,  the  dam  is  often  in  the  shape  of  a 
crescent,  the  convex  side  to  the  stream.  The  huts  are 
generally  located  not  far  above  the  dam,  and  are  of 
sticks,  rushes,  willow-twigs,  mud,  and  tussock-grass,  all 
mixed  together  to  form  a  sort  of  mortar.  They  are 
built  very  strongly,  with  two  rooms,  one  over  the  other, 
communicating  by  means  of  a  round  hole.  The  lower 
is  under  water,  the  upper  a  dry  chamber.  Generally 
there  is  a  hole  left  for  a  window  facing  up  stream. 
When  alarmed  in  their  houses,  they  leap  down  from  the 
dry  chamber  into  the  water  of  the  room  below,  with  a 
loud  slapping  of  their  tails,  which  at  once  alarms  the 
occupants  of  all  the  neighboring  houses.  In  swimming, 
they  keep  an  almost  upright  position  in  the  water,  with 
the  head  and  shoulders  out. 

Beavers  pair  some  time  during  the  months  of  July 
and  August,  living  together  till  April ;  when  the  males 
leave  the  females  to  take  care  of  their  young  for  a 
month  or  more.  Afterwards  they  again  congregate, 
and,  during  the  summer,  roam  about,  regardless  of  their 
houses,  from  stream  to  stream.  Old  trappers  hold  that 
beaver  know  how  high  the  water  will  be  the  ensuing 
spring,  and  always  build  their  houses  on  the  strength  of 
this  knowledge.  The  upper  chamber  of  a  beaver-hut  ia 


280  FIELD-NOTES. 

never  flooded.  This  "  instinct "  is  deemed  infaliJUe.  To 
this  opinion  the  writer  is  unable  to  contribute  any  thing 
definite  pro  or  con.  Beaver  always  dam  a  pond  for 
their  huts  sufficiently  deep  to  not  freeze  to  the  bottom  in 
winter.  As  many  as  ten  individuals  have  been  found 
dwelling  together  in  one  house ;  but,  more  frequently,  the 
number  does  not  exceed  five  or  six.  Their  houses  never 
communicate  with  each  other,  though  sometimes  con- 
tiguous. They  are  by  nature  timid  and  shy,  and,  when 
living  together  in  families,  seem  highly  intelligent,  and 
appreciative  of  each  other's  society.  But  if  a  colony,  or 
family,  gets  scattered,  it  is  the  opinion  of  trappers  that 
they  never  collect  again  to  live  together ;  and,  when  they 
have  thus  strayed  off  from  each  other,  they  seem  to 
grow  dumpish  and  stupid.  The  beaver  works  mostly 
by  night.  The  time  for  shooting  them  is  just  at  dusk, 
when  they  all  come  out  for  a  swim  and  a  romp  about 
their  houses.  A  young  friend  from  Aroostook  County 
contributes  the  following  graphic  account  of  a  visit  to 
one  of  these  sylvan  haunts  of  the  beaver.  In  company 
with  a  young  "Blue-nose,"  he  was  following  up  the 
course  of  an  unexplored  stream,  of  which  he  says,  "  It 
was  a  large  brook,  sufficient  to  turn  a  saw-mill  of 
the  old-fashioned  sort;  and  for  about  three  miles  it 
tumbled  and  foamed  and  roared  among  great  bowlders 
which  had  rolled  down  from  a  steep  crag  to  the  east- 
ward. 

"  Mountain-mink  were  darting  about  its  limpid  pools, 
uttering  from  moment  to  moment  their  sharp  little 
cries. 

"But,  on  reaching  the  top  of  the  valley,  we  came  out 


FIELD-NOTES.  281 

into  a  broad  meadow,  or  bottom,  opening  back  upon  a 
bright  lake  ten  or  twelve  miles  in  length. 

"  For  some  distance  back  from  the  stream  the  bottom 
was  free  from  trees,  and  the  tall  grass  seemed  full  of 
partridges.  The  current  flowed  noiselessly  past ;  till,  as 
we  approached  the  foot  of  the  lake,  a  dull  gurgling 
began  to  be  heard. 

" '  There  must  be  rocks  of  driftwood  lodged  in  the 
channel/  said  Jaques.  l  Yes '  (as  we  turned  a  little 
bend)  :  '  see  what  a  rick  of  sticks  and  knots  ! ' 

"  The  whole  channel  was  filled  with  what  seemed  a 
jam  of  old  wood  and  mud,  over  which  the  water  fell  in 
several  places  in  foamy  sheets. 

"  'But  what  are  those  things  ? '  said  I ;  for,  glancing 
up  stream,  which,  above  this  curious  dam,  expanded  into 
a  sort  of  mill-pond,  I  saw  several  conical-shaped  mud- 
heaps  rising  four  or  five  feet  out  of  the  water. 

"At  first  we  thought  they  must  be  the  work  of 
Indians,  they  looked  so  workmanlike ;  and  we  wondered 
why  they  had  been  made ;  when,  seeing  some  queer, 
five-toed  tracks  in  the  mud  under  the  dam,  their  origin 
suddenly  flashed  upon  me. 

i    "  ( They're  beavers ! '  I  exclaimed.    '  Those  are  beaver- 
huts  ! ' 

"  I  had  often  read  descriptions  of  them,  though  these 
were  the  first  I  had  ever  seen. 

"  '  You're  right/  said  Jaques.  '  Why  didn't  I  think 
of  it  before  ? ' 

"  All  was  quiet  about  the  little  settlement,  which  Con- 
sisted of  five  houses,  one  of  which  seemed  to  be  a 
double  tenement,  —  two  houses  together. 


282  FIELD-NOTES. 

" '  Wonder  if  they're  in  their  huts  now/  said  Jaques. 

"It  seemed  as  if  they  might  be  :  for  there  were  fresh 
tracks  on  the  bank  and  along  the  dam,  which  had  re- 
cently been  repaired  with  new  branches  and  fresh  sods ; 
and  there  were  green  leaves  floating  about  in  the  pond 
above  the  dam.  The  nearest  hut  was  about  twelve  feet 
from  the  bank.  The  water  was  quite  deep,  —  several 
feet. 

"  '  Get  a  pole/  said  Jaques. 

"To  do  this  we  had  to  go  back  to  the  woods,  across 
the  meadow,  where  we  procured  a  long,  dry  sapling : 
and,  on  returning  to  the  stream,  we  saw  where  a  clump 
of  bushes  had  been  gnawed  off  at  the  roots. 

"Coming  softly  up  to  the  bank,  Jaques  gave  the 
nearest  hut  a  prod  with  the  pole.  Instantly  there  was  a 
plunge  within,  accompanied  by  a  loud  slapping  of  the 
water.  Several  more  plunges  followed,  both  in  this  hut 
and  the  others.  There  was  a  waving  of  the  water 
deep  down. 

"Jaques  repeated  his  thrust  again  and  again,  but 
without  making  much  impression.  The  structure 
seemed  a  strong  one.  Branches,  turf  from  the  bank, 
and  mud,  mixed  together,  and  dried  in  the  sun,  formed  a 
thick,  firm  wall.  The  pole  broke  against  it.  But,  feel- 
ing very  curious  to  examine  it,  we  took  off  our  clothes, 
and  waded  out  to  the  nearest  hut. 

"  The  water  was  waist-deep,  the  bottom  muddy.  The 
house  had  its  foundation  on  the  bottom,  with  walls 
of  sticks  and  tussocks,  —  not  smoothly  plastered  with 
mud,  as  above  water,  but  rough,  and  jagged  with  knots, 
prongs,  and  brush.  But  on  one  side  there  was  a  hole 
about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter. 


FIELD-NOTES.  285 

"  We  began  /jo  dig  into  the  upper  part,  tearing  out 
the  sticks,  and  breaking  through  the  mud.  It  was  a 
firmly-connected  mass,  fully  a  foot  in  thickness.  We 
finally  broke  it  up,  disclosing  a  round  cavity  as  large  as 
a  half-hogshead. 

"  It  was  a  dry  room,  too,  having  a  floor  above  the 
water-level,  with  a  circular  opening,  or  trap-door,  into  a 
black  hole  beneath.  Taking  a  stick,  I  thrust  it  into 
this  hole.  Immediately  there  was  a  rush  out  of  the 
hole  below  the  water  on  the  outside  ;  and  we  saw  three 
long,  black  objects  shoot  off  into  the  stream. 

"  The  beavers  were  evidently  in  the  upper  room  when 
we  struck  the  house  with  the  pole.  In  leaping  down 
into  the  water,  they  had  made  the  plunges  we  had 
heard ;  and  I  have  since  read  that  the  loud  slap  which 
they  give  the  water  with  their  tails  is  their  method  of 
giving  an  alarm  to  their  friends. 

"  There  were  a  few  bits  of  green  wood  in  the  upper 
room,  and  the  tails  of  two  large  trouts.  When  first 
uncovered,  it  had  a  strong  odor  of  castor.  We  waded 
around  the  other  houses.  They  all  had  holes  under 
water ;  and  in  two  cases  I  noticed  a  smaller  hole  above 
the  water,  facing  up  stream,  as  if  for  the  admission  of 
fresh  air." 


M313067 


